A report from the Observatório da Cultura do Brasil, over 50 pages with dozens of graphs, delves into the crisis of the Lei Rouanet, Brazil's main cultural funding mechanism. The study highlights regional and administrative exclusions, as the Ministry of Culture launched a public consultation to review the law in November 2025. Criticisms focus on resource concentration and oversight failures.
The Lei Rouanet marked its 34th anniversary on December 23, navigating the most critical moment in its history. Designed to broaden cultural funding access through tax incentives, the law now represents an exclusionary and concentrating system. TCU and CGU audits reveal a backlog of about 26,000 projects lacking proper accounting, amounting to tens of billions of reais.
In 2025, the Ministry of Culture received over 22,500 new proposals, worsening unresolved administrative bottlenecks. Recent changes have slashed financial oversight, leading to near-zero rejection rates—not due to compliance, but relaxed controls, as per the TCU.
Distributionally, around 80% of resources concentrate in the Rio-São Paulo axis, particularly upscale areas like Pinheiros, according to Observatório Ibira 30. Peripheral regions, the North, the interior, and most cultural workers remain excluded.
Public debate polarizes: far-right sectors morally attack the law, while the government and cultural market highlight economic impacts, overlooking deep inequalities. Institutions like Observatório da Cultura do Brasil, IBDCult, IPEA, and Observatório Ibira 30 offer analyses exposing governance flaws, lack of regional criteria, and private interest capture.
The report, supported by political scientist Manoel J. de Souza Neto, compiles audits, scandals, and data, suggesting reforms such as mandatory regional distribution criteria, bolstering the Fundo Nacional de Cultura, and enhanced transparency. With tax reform, state and municipal incentives will end, further overloading Rouanet. Part of a book on the Ministry of Culture's 40 years, the study advocates a profound overhaul to make it an effective, accountable, and socially just public policy, in line with the Constitution.
