Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

In the beginning of April, the IBGE was questioned by congressmen on the methodology for the estimation of the per capita household income in the Continuous National Household Sample Survey - Continuous PNAD, a survey that will replace the one that traditionally compiled this variable.

Among the questions, a particular highlight was the one related to the confidence intervals of the estimates per Federation Unit, since such estimates will be the basis for sharing the State Revenue Sharing Fund - FPE, according to Complementary Law no. 143/2013 (LC 143).

In the Information Request, the senators expressed a concern on "the data that are being collected and released might cause a wrong assessment by the States" and requested to assess "whether the current survey does not need to be restructured to transparently meet the constitutional ordinances that will impose a burden on its results". It should be clarified that the IBGE still has not released any estimate on per capita household income based on information from the Continuous PNAD.

It should be recognized that the IBGE has been scheduled hitherto to provide the estimates requested in December 2015 to be applied in the distribution of resources during the tax year of 2017. Nevertheless, LC 143 established the validity from 2016 onwards, which requires the release of the data up to January 2015.

Considering the concerns expressed by the senators and taking into account the reduced term to produce the estimates, the IBGE will adopt the following measures:

• - establish a technical team within the IBGE to propose a methodology for the production of the estimates required by LC 143 with the Continuous PNAD, taking into account the demand that such estimates show a similar precision for each Federation Unit;
• - present the methodology to be used to the Federation Units and any other interested parties; and
• - release the results of the estimates for the per capita household income in the Continuous PNAD up to January 2015, using the proposed methodology and meeting the terms established by LC 143;
• - reschedule the release calendar of the results of the Continuous PNAD, resuming it from January 2015 onwards and focusing the available technical staff on this issue.

By way of these measures, the IBGE assures that this issue will be addressed with maximum institutional commitment and that it will adopt the most suitable methods to produce the required estimates, then resuming the regular release of the Continuous PNAD, a survey of utmost importance for Brazil.

Steering Committee
April 10, 2014