Brasília, November 21, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The ten sectorial reporters for the 2004 budget will have until December 1 to analyze the 8,010 amendments to the budget bill. The Joint Budget Comission received these amendments up to 2:40 A.M. on Thursday (20), when the deadline expired. The amendments were presented by members of the legislature (deputies and senators), techical commissions in the Chamber and the Senate, and state and regional parliamentary blocs. The expectation was for around 15 thousand amendments to be submitted.

To meet these proposals, the general reporter of the budget, Deputy Jorge Bittar (PT-RJ), set aside R$ 2.5 billion in resources.

What is most curious is that, although the volume of resources set aside for the amendments is R$ 2.5 billion, the total value of all the amendments presented comes to over R$ 65 billion. That means that the reporters will have to cut over R$ 62 billion from the 8,010 amendments.

Of the ten sectorial areas, the ones that received the largest numbers of amendments were health (3,265), education, science, technology, and sports (1,338), and planning and urban development (963). It is already a tradition in the budget commission for the largest number of amendments to be in the area of education. (DAS)