The plenary of the Chamber of Deputies approved this Tuesday (7) a modified version of a bill that seeks to give more transparency to the composition of prices of oil derivatives practiced in the country.
The project requires economic agents working in the oil and biofuel industry to report to the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) every month the average values of the following points under their responsibility that influence fuel prices:
- average cost of producing oil of national origin;
- average cost of producing natural gas of national origin;
- cost of acquiring oil, when applicable;
- billing price at the production unit;
- billing price of importers;
- fuel distribution gross margin;
- gross margin from resale of automotive fuels;
- pipeline tariffs to the distribution base, when applicable;
- freight from the production unit to the distribution base or, in the case of hydrated ethanol, to the retail station;
- freight from the distribution base to the dealer station;
- taxes.
Anyone who fails to comply with this determination can be fined from R$5,000 to R$1 million, says the text.
Under the project, the ANP must also inform, on its internet portal, on a monthly basis, the composition of the average prices to consumers in the state capitals of the following fuels:
- automotive gasoline;
- diesel oil;
- liquefied petroleum gas;
- aviation kerosene;
- hydrous ethanol.
The ANP must also inform the composition of the average selling prices of natural gas to piped gas distributors in the capitals of states that have a point of supply of the product.
In the opinion of the rapporteur of the matter, federal deputy Arnaldo Jardim (Cidadania-SP), this transparency will provide greater competition in the market and, consequently, lower prices for Brazilians.
Initially, the project authored by federal deputy Reginaldo Lopes (PT-MG) sought to deal only with Petrobras, but Arnaldo Jardim said that Petrobras “has no longer had a monopoly” in the domestic supply of the main oil derivatives. Therefore, Jardim proposed to extend the content of the project to all economic agents active in the oil and biofuel industry.
The project proposed by Lopes also provided for creating rules for calculating the price composition of Petrobras’ oil derivatives. He even wrote in the justification for the original text that the proposal “seeks social and moral justice to determine the end of this nefarious Petrobras price policy, guaranteeing that national production and oil serve Brazilian society, which is the real owner of the country’s riches.
“It is not intended to extinguish investors’ profits and remuneration, but to create a pricing policy that can give the population fair prices for oil derivatives and also provide profit for investments and shareholder remuneration”, added the PT.
However, this part of the calculation was resisted by government officials and was withdrawn by the rapporteur. This is because part of the deputies evaluated that the point could affect the price policy practiced by Petrobras, which works with the PPI (import parity price), although the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), had already defended that the text would not change the company’s current fuel pricing policy.
The original project also stated that, “in view of guaranteeing domestic supply, and the economic role of Petrobras, the export of surplus oil will only be allowed in relation to the volume necessary to guarantee the fulfillment of the country’s domestic demand”. This excerpt was also removed from the project by the rapporteur.
According to Jardim, the “discriminatory treatment accorded to Petrobras finds an obstacle in the Constitution for violating the principle of isonomy and the principles that govern the economic order, particularly the principles of free enterprise and free competition”.
PSOL presented a suggestion for the plenary to vote on the original project as presented by Reginaldo Lopes, without success. Even so, the opposition recommended that its deputies vote in favor of the modified project presented by Arnaldo Jardim in favor of the transparency provided by the text.
The matter goes to the Federal Senate for analysis.
Source: CNN Brasil
