THE EVOLUTION OF THE MECHANISM BINDING BRAZILIAN FEDERAL BUDGET REVENUES DURING THE PERIOD 1970-2016: HIGHLIGHT OF MAIN CURRENT LINKAGES

This work has as its theme the quality of public spending, and as a sub-theme budgetary rigidity and its impact on the allocation of public resources. Its general objective is to present the evolution of the mechanism linking Brazilian federal budget revenues in the period from 1970 to 2016, highlighting the main current links. To this end, it uses the following methodologies: as an epistemological axis, the critical-dialectic method, historicizing the theme; as the logical axis of investigation, the hypothetical-deductive, starting from the main hypothesis that the high degree of
linkage of federal budget revenues hampers the allocation of public resources; as a technical axis of investigation, a bibliographic and documentary approach was implemented: applicable legislative documents were selected, as well as publications from SOF, STN, BCB, in addition to several textbooks and scientific research methodology manuals. It is argued that the increasing tightness of the public budget together with the increase in expenses, motivated by greater demands from society, limits the government’s capacity for response and fiscal adjustment in times of crisis,
as well as contributing to the inefficiency of the tax system. national level and the worsening quality of public spending. It is concluded that: a) while from 1970 to 2000, specifically, there was a considerable increase – from 30% to 80% – in the linking of public revenues, from 2001 to 2016, the constancy of the linking of budget revenues was perceived federal between 70% and 80%, which reveals budgetary rigidity that hampers the allocation of Brazilian federal public resources; b) the idea that new expenses can only be financed by new revenues is mistaken; it is part of a political discourse that claims to aim to raise more resources forinvestments in the sector or area, when, in fact, it aims to disguise the mere intention of increasing the tax burden, and, consequently, the flexibility of using these resources for purposes other than those discursively pre-objectified; c) in the Brazilian case, it is concluded that the creation of a new tax increases fiscal flexibility and does not resolve the issue of the scarcity of free resources for areas considered priority, especially for investments.