Fuel delivery does not reduce gasoline and ethanol prices, says economist

The National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) approved changes in the rules for the sale of fuels and authorized the delivery of gasoline and ethanol by delivery. In an interview with CNN, economist Paulo Dutra Costantin, coordinator of the Economics course at Faap, said that this could make the operation more expensive.

“If we look at the economic side, what can this bring benefit to the price reduction? At first, nothing”, he says. According to him, the delivery of fuel to the gas stations’ tanks requires a specialized workforce. “It’s not a simple operation”.

For Costantin, it may be complicated to transfer this operation, which today is carried out by large trucks and specialized labor, to smaller trucks, which will have to have a structure to guarantee the quality of the fuel and not cause fires and explosions.

The economist also points out that the gas stations themselves, for the time being, will be responsible for the delivery and that, therefore, they will be incurring a higher cost.

“It is simply a service that is being placed and, probably, delivery will be more expensive, as it implies higher costs for the company. And she will pass this on to the consumer, there is no way.”

Another change announced by the ANP is the elimination of one decimal place from the prices that are displayed at the pumps of the gas stations. The package began to be discussed by the ANP board after the truck drivers’ strike in 2018. The economist assesses it as a change with a psychological effect, without a practical effect.

*(supervised by Ludmilla Candal)