Fiscal pedaling (a calque from Brazilian Portuguese : pedalada fiscal, or simply pedaladas) is a governmental creative accounting technique involving the use of state-owned banks to front funds required for paying general government obligations without officially declaring a loan, thus hiding these transfers from public scrutiny [1] [2] and delaying repayment from the Treasury to these banks. [3] As such it is a kind of "overdraft" [4] implying a positive balance sheet that does not really exist. [3] Sometimes the term fiscal backpedaling is used. [5]
The term gained popularity with the Brazilian Presidential election of 2014, in which President Dilma Rousseff was reelected. She was later accused of fiscal pedaling during the campaign, for allowing this delay in repayment to government-owned banks by the Brazilian Treasury [ pt ] which is also the entity which oversees these banks. Her opponents argued that this amounted to undeclared loans by these banks to the Treasury, which is prohibited by the Brazilian Constitution [6] and a violation of the Fiscal Responsibility Law . [3] The Rousseff Administration allegedly used this pedaling to improve fiscal outcomes and make the budget surplus for the years 2012 to 2014 appear larger. [7] The Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU), unanimously declared this maneuver a violation of fiscal responsibility. [7] [8] [9] The decision of the TCU put the National Congress under great pressure to begin impeachment proceedings of Dilma Rousseff. [10] [11]
One possible motivation for fiscal pedaling is political advantage, in that it permits a government to conceal the true extent of its fiscal obligations during a political campaign. President Rousseff's government was accused of using these accounting techniques during the bitterly fought campaign of 2014, with the funding thus obtained allegedly used to support programs for the poor, credits to farmers, and subsidies for low-income housing. [1] Supporters claimed this was standard practice in Brazil and had been engaged in by previous Presidents, and that the opposition to her was purely political. [2]
Dilma Vana Rousseff is a Brazilian economist and politician who is the Chair of the New Development Bank since March 2023. Previously, she served as the 36th president of Brazil from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the first woman to have held the Brazilian presidency. She also previously served as the chief of staff to former and current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from 2005 to 2010.
Michel Miguel Elias Temer Lulia is a Brazilian politician, lawyer and writer who served as the 37th president of Brazil from 31 August 2016 to 31 December 2018. He took office after the impeachment and removal from office of his predecessor Dilma Rousseff. He had been the 24th vice president of Brazil since 2011 and acting president since 12 May 2016, when Rousseff's powers and duties were suspended pending an impeachment trial.
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In 2015 and 2016, a series of protests in Brazil denounced corruption and the government of President Dilma Rousseff, triggered by revelations that numerous politicians allegedly accepted bribes connected to contracts at state-owned energy company Petrobras between 2003 and 2010 and connected to the Workers' Party, while Rousseff chaired the company's board of directors. The first protests on 15 March 2015 numbered between one and nearly three million protesters against the scandal and the country's poor economic situation. In response, the government introduced anti-corruption legislation. A second day of major protesting occurred 12 April, with turnout, according to GloboNews, ranging from 696,000 to 1,500,000. On 16 August, protests took place in 200 cities in all 26 states of Brazil. Following allegations that Rousseff's predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, participated in money laundering and a prosecutor ordered his arrest, record numbers of Brazilians protested against the Rousseff government on 13 March 2016, with nearly 7 million citizens demonstrating.
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The impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the 36th president of Brazil, began on 2 December 2015 with a petition for her impeachment being accepted by Eduardo Cunha, then president of the Chamber of Deputies, and continued into late 2016. Dilma Rousseff, then more than 12 months into her second four-year term, was charged with criminal administrative misconduct and disregard for the federal budget in violation of article 85, items V and VI, of the Constitution of Brazil and the Fiscal Responsibility Law, Article 36. The petition also accused Rousseff of criminal responsibility for failing to act on the scandal at the Brazilian national petroleum company, Petrobras, on account of allegations uncovered by the Operation Car Wash investigation, and for failing to distance herself from the suspects in that investigation.
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Bruno Cavalcanti de Araújo is a Brazilian lawyer and politician, filiated to the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). Was discharged from his third term as federal deputy for the state of Pernambuco to assume the Ministry of Cities, appointed by the then acting president Michel Temer.
A special election for the position of president of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil took place on July 14, 2016, during the 55th legislature. The election was necessary due to the resignation of Eduardo Cunha, announced on the 7th of that month. According to the Brazilian Constitution, the president of the Chamber of Deputies is the second in line of succession to the Presidency of the Republic.
Zenaide Maia Calado Pereira dos Santos, better known as Zenaide Maia, is a Brazilian politician and doctor. Although born in Paraíba, she has spent her political career representing Rio Grande do Norte, currently serving as a Senator. She previously served in the Chamber of Deputies, from 2015 to 2019, and as secretary of health in São Gonçalo do Amarante from 1991 to 1992 and from 2009 to 2011.
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Since the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff as President of Brazil became a subject of debate and taking a lot of space in the media, the main polling institutes of the country made many opinion polls about it.
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The presidency of Michel Temer began on May 12, 2016, when the vice-president of the Republic, Michel Temer, temporarily assumed the position of president of the Brazilian Republic, after the temporary removal of President Dilma Rousseff, as a result of the acceptance of the impeachment process by the Federal Senate. Once the process was concluded, on August 31 of the same year, Temer took over the position permanently, which he held until January 1, 2019, when the administration of Bolsonaro began.
The presidency of Dilma Rousseff began on January 1, 2011 with Dilma Vana Rousseff's inauguration as president after defeating PSDB candidate José Serra in the 2010 elections, and ended with her impeachment on August 31, 2016, already in her second term.
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Art. 36: Credit operations are forbidden between a state financial institution and the Federal entity which oversees it in the capacity of loan beneficiary.
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