Brasília, 8/7/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - An agreement reached the day before yesterday by political party allies of the government made it possible for a first vote to take place on the social security reform bill in congress. Yesterday line item votes were scheduled.

The point of departure in the negotiations was the text drawn up by deputy José Pimentel (PT-CE) (known as the redactor). Changes to that text included raising the ceiling on retirement benefits for state judges, raising the ceiling on the amount retirees will get a tax exemption on, and, finally, setting another ceiling on benefits that will be free of any reduction [here are the figures: state judge retirement ceiling raised from 75% to 85.5% of Supreme Court justice salary (which is slightly more than R$17,000); ceiling on benefits for retirees which are tax exempt raised from R$1,058 to R$1,200 (which is 50% of the "Social Security ceiling")].

A private sector pension fund was also set up for civil servants.The agreement on the ceiling on state judge retirement benefits was seen as putting a halt to their super-salaries which have wrecked havoc with state budgets. (AB)