President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), the pre-candidates best positioned in polls of voting intentions, criticized this Wednesday (8) the management of Petrobras, in the face of the high fuel prices and government strategies to relieve consumers’ pockets.
Bolsonaro, despite the criticism, said he does not intend to interfere in the state-owned company’s pricing policy.
“We are not going to interfere in Petrobras, as PT interfered, back then, in the price of gasoline. We are not going to interfere in the price of electric energy, as Dilma interfered”, said the president, during lunch with businessmen in Rio de Janeiro.
Bolsonaro said that there is still no “understanding” with Petrobras. According to him, the state company insists on not lowering its profit margin.
“We must collaborate in a difficult time like this. Unfortunately, we do not have an understanding with Petrobras. The big oil companies have lowered their profit margins. Here, the opposite is done.”
At the event, Bolsonaro again said that the government intends to zero PIS-Cofins on gasoline and ethanol. The president also cited the project approved in the Chamber that limits the ICMS rate on fuels to 17%. The text still needs to go through the Senate.
Lula, in an interview with radio Itatiaia, from Minas Gerais, said this Wednesday that, if Bolsonaro had “courage”, he would end Petrobras’ international price parity in “a stroke of a pen”.
According to PT, the rule was implemented by the former president of state-owned Pedro Parente also “in a stroke of a pen”.
“The increase in gasoline (aligned) to the international price was not done with a vote in Congress. It was a stroke of the pen by (former Petrobras president) Pedro Parente. Therefore, if to increase the price of fuel and transform it into an international price it was a pen stroke, for you to take it out it can also be a pen stroke. The president, if he had the courage, if he weren’t a braggart, a liar, he would have done it already”, said Lula.
In Lula’s opinion, when proposing these measures, Bolsonaro seeks to blame governors for the rise in fuel prices, in addition to harming municipal budgets and investments in health and education.
“All this fight over ICMS will not result in the pump or the gas cylinder”, said the PT.
Lula also defended that Brazil increase its oil refining capacity, in order to become truly self-sufficient.
“Brazil today is refining only 80% of the fuel we need. We need to build more refineries for Brazil to be effectively self-sufficient, so that we don’t have to pay for gasoline at international prices.”
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*Posted by Renan Porto
Source: CNN Brasil
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