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Viewing cable 06BRASILIA1151, BRAZIL'S SOCIAL SECURITY DEFICIT: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
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| Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06BRASILIA1151 | 2006-06-09 14:03 | 2011-07-11 00:00 | UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY | Embassy Brasilia |
VZCZCXRO3879
RR RUEHRG
DE RUEHBR #1151/01 1601403
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 091403Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5716
INFO RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 4934
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 2248
RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 7156
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 5483
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 4072
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 6301
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 5563
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 1982
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDO/USDOC WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRASILIA 001151
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
NSC FOR FEARS
TREASURY FOR OASIA - DAS LEE, D.DOUGLASS
STATE PASS TO FED BOARD OF GOVERNORS FOR ROBITAILLE
USDOC FOR 4332/ITA/MAC/WH/OLAC/JANDERSEN/ADRISCOLL/MWAR D
USDOC FOR 3134/ITA/USCS/OIO/WH/RD/SHUPKA
STATE PASS USAID FOR LAC
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EFIN ECON PGOV BR
SUBJECT: BRAZIL'S SOCIAL SECURITY DEFICIT: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
REF: A) BRASILIA 0961
B) BRASILIA 0790
C) BRASILIA 1036
(U) This cable is sensitive but unclassified, please protect
accordingly.
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Brazilian pensioners recently have been subjected
to a burdensome requirement to appear in person to reregister with
the social security administration (INSS) in order to continue
receiving their pension payments. The requirement, problematic for
elderly and sometimes infirm retirees, has sparked public protests
in places but is meant to help the INSS clear the books of "phantom"
pensioners, whose families continue collecting their INSS pensions
even after their deaths. The GoB has resorted to the
re-registration, among other measures, in an attempt to address the
growing deficit in the INSS system, which provides pensions and
medical/disability payments to private sector employees. The
problems run much deeper than phantom pensioners, however, according
to analysts with whom we have spoken. These cited Lula's minimum
wage hikes (to which the minimum pension level is pegged), lack of a
minimum retirement age, generous benefits and the use of INSS
pensions as a social program/wealth transfer mechanism as key issues
that must be dealt with. The problem is a growing one: the INSS
deficit almost doubled, from 1.1% of GDP in 2002 to 1.98% of GDP in
2005, and is expected to continue widening to 2.33% of GDP in 2006.
Moreover, the deficit, which is financed from general revenues,
increasingly is squeezing other federal expenditures, particularly
public investments. The issue will thus be a priority for whatever
administration takes office in January 2007. While Finance Minister
Mantega has acknowledged to WHA A/S Shannon that the GoB understood
it would have to reform the INSS system, he admitted that electoral
politics make it difficult to debate the problem publicly. End
Summary.
INSS Deficit Rockets Despite Previous Reforms
---------------------------------------------
¶2. (U) The deficit in Brazil's social security system, a
pay-as-you-go scheme, is growing despite two previous reforms meant
to address the problem. Both of those efforts, the most recent in
1998/1999, when the INSS deficit was about 1% of GDP, increased
worker contributions and reduced benefits slightly. Although the
measures were predicted to stabilize the INSS deficit at 1% of GDP,
its growth continued, initially slowly and then accelerating more
recently. The deficit reached 1.98% of GDP in 2005 and is predicted
to grow to 2.33% of GDP in 2006.
TABLE - INSS DEFICIT
(Percent of GDP)
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 /1
-------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
INSS
Revenues
(payroll tax) 5.3% 5.2% 5.3% 5.6% 5.6%
INSS
Expenditures 6.4% 6.9% 7.1% 7.58% 7.93%
INSS Deficit 1.1% 1.7% 1.8% 1.98% 2.33%
INSS Deficit
as percent of
federal 6.1% 9.8% 10.1% 10.3% 12.7%
expenditures
--------------------------------------------- ---------
/1 - Predicted 2006 values
-Data Source: Planning Ministry
¶3. (U) The deficit is due primarily to increased outlays, with which
BRASILIA 00001151 002 OF 003
contributions -- primarily payroll taxes on the salaries of formal
sector employees -- have not kept pace. (Note: the Lula
Administration took action early in 2003 to limit the growth of the
deficit in the public-employees pension system, but did not touch
the broader private-sector social security system.) The GoB has
taken administrative actions to improve INSS management and reduce
waste, such as the re-registration effort to remove phantom payees
from the rolls. It also has attempted to increase efficiency,
including through the de facto merger of the INSS tax-collection
wing (Receita da Previdencia) with the federal government's tax
administration (Receita Federal), which it hopes will improve its
tax payment enforcement efforts. Finally, it has tightened
requirements for payment of ballooning medical benefits, a
significant portion of which was believed to be fraudulent.
Problems Run Deep
-----------------
¶4. (SBU) While these administrative actions have had some limited
effect, the problems run much deeper. UN Economist Carlos Mussi
argued to Econoff that foremost among these is that the Lula
administration granted substantial increases in the minimum wage,
amounting to 13% in real terms, in 2004 and 2005. As the minimum
pension benefit level is constitutionally linked to the minimum
wage, social security accounts have suffered. Former Treasury
Secretary Joaquim Levy published a document at the end of March --
SIPDIS
immediately prior to leaving the GoB to join the Inter American
Development Bank (IDB) -- which warned that the real minimum wage
increases of 2005 and 2006 would feed through not only to general
government accounts, but also to the INSS deficit. Raul Velloso, a
prominent fiscal expert with ties to the opposition PSDB party, told
Econoff that for every one Real increase in the minimum wage, INSS
benefit payments (about 61% of which are paid at the minimum-wage
level) jump by Reals 200 million (about USD 91 million).
¶5. (SBU) There is a significant social policy element to these
minimum-wage pensions, most of which are paid to the "rural
pensioners" and to many urban poor. These workers become eligible
for the minimum pension -- at age 65 for men or age 60 for women --
based on need rather than past contributions to the INSS system.
Rural pensioners, many of whom were subsistence farmers, need not
prove that they contributed into the system at all. Poor urban
workers, frequently employed by informal enterprises, need only show
occasional contributions to the system to become eligible.
According to Velloso, were it not for paying rural pensions, the
INSS system currently would be running a cash surplus. This means
that the formal sector workers' payroll taxes are partially
subsidizing the rural pensions.
¶6. (SBU) While income transfer programs benefiting the elderly poor
are a necessary part of the social safety net, Velloso made the case
that they ought to be implemented more transparently, as a social
program paid for directly from the central government budget, not
through INSS payroll taxes. The expensive rural INSS pensions
program, however, is singled out by one academic study as the single
government program with the greatest impact in reducing rural
poverty in Brazil over the last decade. Most analysts agree that
de-linking the minimum pension benefit from the minimum wage is a
necessary step for improving INSS finances, but note this would
require a politically-controversial constitutional amendment.
¶7. (SBU) Another key structural problem is that for many
contributors there is no minimum retirement age. Anyone who has
worked and contributed to the system for the minimum number of years
(35 for men and 30 for women) can draw a pension. It's not uncommon
practice for many Brazilians, therefore, to retire in their
mid-fifties on a full pension (i.e. not reduced to reflect their
greater expected remaining lifespan as compared to workers retiring
in their mid-sixties). One measure of the problem this creates is
that the "Dependency Ratio" in the INSS system (i.e. the number of
active workers that support each pensioner), already has reached
about 1.5, well below that of the U.S. and most European countries.
Benefits, moreover, also are generous by comparison with
contributions and can, in many cases, amount to 100% of the average
BRASILIA 00001151 003 OF 003
of a person's highest four years of earnings.
Squeezing other Federal Expenditures
------------------------------------
¶8. (SBU) The INSS deficit is an increasing problem for GoB fiscal
management. A Central Bank contact explained that while there is no
legal requirement that the GoB do so, it chooses as a matter of
course to cover the shortfall in the INSS system out of general
revenues. As the INSS deficit has grown more quickly than federal
general revenues, it increasingly has squeezed other GoB
expenditures, mounting from 6.1% of federal expenditures in 2002 to
a predicted 12.7% of federal expenditures in 2006. Given the
extensive set of constitutional earmarks and requirements for
revenue sharing with states and municipalities (ref B), the growth
in the INSS deficit has proven particularly difficult to accommodate
and has been a principal factor behind the precipitous decline in
federal investment expenditures over the same period. Uniquely in
the contentious fiscal policy debate in Brazil, the decline in
federal investment, particularly infrastructure investment, has been
unanimously lamented across the political spectrum here as a public
policy failure.
¶9. (SBU) Finance Minister Mantega told visiting WHA A/S Tom Shannon
on May 22 that the GoB understands there is a need to reform the
social security system, but that it was not the time publicly to
discuss the issue during the presidential campaign (ref C). Mantega
did not elaborate on what the GoB might do to address the deficit.
The UN's Mussi said it would take a "courageous" candidate to openly
call for reforming the INSS system during the campaign. Mussi
nevertheless argued that the new President at a minimum would need
to obtain Congressional approval of a constitutional reform
de-linking the minimum wage from the minimum pension level. A
minimum retirement age also is necessary, he argued.
Growth of Private Pension Funds
-------------------------------
¶10. (U) The INSS system's ill-health has proven a boon to the
private pension business, which has seen tremendous growth, albeit
from a relatively small base. The industry has two segments,
employer-sponsored plans funded by joint employer/employee
contributions and open plans into which any individual can pay.
According to the private pension industry association (ANAPP), total
reserves (i.e. the sum of all deposits to date minus payouts) in
open pension plans have grown from about Reals 3 billion in 1996 to
Reals 10 billion in 2002, then jumped sharply to Reals 60 billion in
2004 and are expected to close out 2006 at close to Reals 100
billion (about USD 45 billion at current exchange rates, or 5% of
GDP). Employer sponsored plans currently amount to a further 7% of
GDP. The GoB in 2005 reduced the income tax rate applied to long
term investments, a step which has helped boost private pension
contributions. While still relatively small in international terms,
these private pension funds are becoming large enough to change
Brazilian financial markets, providing longer term capital to the
markets.
¶11. (SBU) Comment: There is a general acknowledgement among the
political class that the INSS system must be reformed in order to
stanch the hemorrhage it causes to federal fiscal accounts. But any
attempts to change the system will elicit strong resistance from
entrenched beneficiaries, many of whom view their pensions as a
"right" they have conquered. This fact will make INSS reform -- and
broader fiscal/budget reform -- the "elephant in the room" of the
2006 presidential campaign, the critical issue that all know is
there but none will address. Whether the new administration
inaugurated in January 2007, regardless of whom is elected, will be
able to muster a sufficiently strong coalition to push through
substantive reform, remains an open question.
CHICOLA