Brazilians are up in arms furiously firing emails to friends and acquaintances trying to rally them in a movement or a revolution if necessary to revoke a new law that will confiscate much of their money to create what the legislation calls poupança fraterna or fraternal savings.
The truth is that while Bill 137/2004 called poupança fraterna was really presented to Congress in 2004 it has been tabled since March 2004 with no forecast for when it may be discussed.
It’s not the first time, however, that the bill that never became law is presented as ready to take effect. The last wave of emails, which no one knows who started, says that the bill has been approved and that it will be in force in 2007.
"Collor joined Lula and the savings confiscation has been resurrected," says the email adding the information that the measure was adopted "in the sly" and approved "in the dead of night".
The feared bill authored by House representative Nazareno Fonteles from the Workers Party of Piauí state would create a new bank account where all revenues surpassing ten times the per-capita income of Brazilians would be deposited.
The money would go into a savings account in Banco do Brasil or Caixa Econômica Federal (Federal Savings Bank) and would stay there for seven years and then returned in the following 14 years in monthly installments, with the amount corrected for inflation.
If compulsory savings were adopted today Brazilians would be allowed to spend a maximum of 8,766 reais (US$ 4,085) a month.
The money would be returned in only four situations: if the owner of the account died, if the owner or his spouse or dependents had a serious disease, if the money were used to buy a house (it had to cost less than 200,000 reais – US$ 93.220) in which he would live and finally if the money were applied in projects approved by the still to be created National Board of Fraternal Savings (CNPF, Conselho Nacional da Poupança Fraterna).
The CNPF would be in charge of managing and investing the money generated by the compulsory savings. The Social Development and Hunger Alleviation Ministry would be the main manager, but other government ministries and civic associations would also be invited to cooperate including the Catholic organization Caritas, the National Confederation of Agriculture Workers and the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST).
As presented by Fonteles, the intent of new bill is to introduce new sources to raise money to finance the elimination of poverty. The PT representative says that he has been receiving a lot of offensive emails and doesn’t understand all the fuss since he has presented his bill two years ago:
"I don’t get why people took all the time to react and are into this repercussion recycling. This measure will still be dragging in the House for years to come."
He also says that he feels as a victim of injustice when people compare his bill to the surprise move taken in 1990 by president Fernando Collor who froze and confiscated all savings accounts with balances over US$ 1,500.
"My bill doesn’t confiscate the savings of anybody. It is going to create a savings account to finance co-ops and small businessmen. If the person had 1 million reais in his savings and the bill were approved today, he would keep his million," he said in defense of his measure.
For the bill’s reporter, Max Rosenmann, from the PMDB party, there is no chance the measure will be approved. He has already declared his opposition to the bill, but this hasn’t kept him from receiving abuse from the public who has been inundating him with telephone call and emails:
"People don’t know the difference between the bill’s author and the bill’s reporter," he says, "and many people believe that I introduced the measure. So, they have been calling and offending me."
Rosenmann is feeling a noticeable increase in complaints in the last couple of months with the situation getting really bad in the last few days: "The pressure people are applying is getting worse. Every day it seems that the contamination is spreading more and more."
Messages have been coming from all classes and even from overseas. According to him some foreigners have expressed their fear of investing in Brazil and many Brazilians have threatened to withdraw the money they have in savings accounts.
One of the emails being sent says in part:
Subject: Careful with you savings ( This is not Spam)
Read and send it to as many people as you can. The thing is serious and for sure we will be the victims.
Like Collor, Lula is going to confiscate the savings. It wasn’t for nothing that former president Collor has become Lula’s ally. He apparently also helped the PT write its government’s program.
Believe it. It is no coincidence. Collor allied himself with Lula and savings confiscation was resurrected. The assault on our money will even have a pretty name: fraternal savings.
The theft’s author is not Zélia Cardoso de Melo anymore, but a jackass called Nazareno Fonteles.