The largest items are the Bolsa Família increase and subsidies for taxi drivers, ride-hailing drivers, truckers and transport operators to renew their vehicles Some 20 million Brazilian families begin receiving this week a 15% increase in the Bolsa Família social programme, the centrepiece of a broad package of aid, subsidies and tax cuts announced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the final stretch of the campaign for Sunday’s runoff, in which he faces Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in a statistical tie.
According to calculations by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, the measures announced by Lula over the past year, accelerating during the campaign, add up to almost 300 billion reais, about US$57 billion, over the rest of 2026 and 2027. The largest items are the Bolsa Família increase and subsidies for taxi drivers, ride-hailing drivers, truckers and transport operators to renew their vehicles. After the first round, the president also promised a payment of 5,000 reais to micro-entrepreneurs and partial forgiveness of their debts, scrapped taxes on fuel and pledged free public transport at weekends. Earlier he had launched a new personal debt renegotiation programme and banned online betting.
“This is my last campaign for president and I want this term to be historic,” Lula said on Tuesday at a rally in São Luís. The president, who is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term, also challenged his rival to lift secrecy over his family’s assets and phone records, as he has pledged to the electoral court to do for his own.
Bolsonaro promises sharp cuts in public spending, which he put at 250 billion reais in Sunday’s debate, and says he will maintain Bolsa Família and other social programmes, though he has not explained how he will reconcile both goals. Brazil’s public debt stands at around 82% of GDP.
The measures have barely moved the polls, which still show a statistical tie with a slight edge for Bolsonaro, who won the first round with 47.03% of the vote against Lula’s 45.16%. The two candidates will face each other on Friday in their second and final debate, on TV Globo.