Bahia started 2023 with one of the lowest debt levels in the country. According to the State Finance Department, the net consolidated debt of the government of Bahia corresponds to 30% of net current revenue, below the level allowed by the Fiscal Responsibility Law (LRF).
The result marks the downward trajectory over time. According to information from Sefaz-BA, this is due, on the one hand, to the consistent amortization process of the public debt, and, on the other, to the evolution of revenues from the modernization of the tax authorities.
In recent years, the debt, which corresponded to 62% of revenue in 2019, fell to 56% in 2020 and to 38% in 2021, now reaching 30%. The drop is even more pronounced when one takes into account the numbers of the last two decades. In 2000, Bahia’s debt corresponded to 164% of revenue, rising to 166% in the following year and reaching 182% in 2002, the highest level reached by the State in the period.
Currently, Bahia’s situation is better than the largest states in the country, such as Rio Grande do Sul, which started the year with a debt equivalent to 199% of net current revenue, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 168%, Minas Gerais, with 157 % and São Paulo with 115%.
“Ensuring the balance of the State’s accounts so that it can continue investing and meeting the demands of Bahian society was Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues’ first orientation for finance management”, says State Finance Secretary, Manoel Vitório. “The low-indebtedness scenario is fundamental in this sense, because debt control is among the conditions without which it becomes difficult to keep accounts balanced”.