THE URGENCY IN REVIEWING THE MUNICIPAL PARTICIPATION FUND IN LIGHT OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES
Municipal Participation Fund; Demographic Transition; Population Decrease; Population-Ageing.
Intergovernmental transfers enable the provision of public services by subnational entities which, in many cases, have high financial dependence, especially municipalities. The Municipal Participation Fund (FPM) stands out for its volume of resources in relation to other intergovernmental transfers in the country and its representation in municipal budgets. The main criteria for FPM distribution is population size, which causes several problems given the methodologies used for its distribution and the lack of other factors to portray the local reality. In this discussion, the literature reinforces the idea that distribution criteria incorporate other factors, however, the scenario of structural changes in the Brazilian population, such as transformations in the age structure and the pace of population growth, are not included in the government's and research agenda. These aspects are related to the demographic transition, it was found that, in more advanced stages in the transition, the influence of factors such as population aging and the slowdown in the rate of growth, culminating in population decline. Thus, this panorama presents dissonance with the expectation of a demographic explosion, such as Malthusian theory and the current criteria for distributing resources. In other words, the demand for fundraising would be proportionally related to the size of a population, although this correlation does not reflect the existing demand, considering that the supply of public services and quantity of resources is also influenced by the age structure of the population. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the direct and indirect effects of the demographic transition on the distribution of Municipal Participation Fund. For this, population data from the Demographic Census of 2000, 2010 and 2022 will be used, as well as population projections until 2030, by municipality, organized by the Laboratório de Estimativas e Projeções Populacionais (LEPP/UFRN). In relation to information on the finances of Brazilian municipalities, the data made by the Secretaria do Tesouro Nacional from 2000 to 2022 will be used. Preliminary analyzes demonstrate that, after decades of changes in legislation that regulates the Fund, there were only palliative changes, although there were gaps in the regulations for reformulations. While the demographic transition has intensified, Brazilian municipalities are in an accelerated process of modifying their age structure, in addition to the expansion of municipalities that have a population reduction. With further research, the urgency of reformulating the distribution criteria for the Municipal Participation Fund will become evident.