The Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, praised the approval of the PEC on Benefits in the National Congress and classified the measure as an income transfer and not a subsidy.
According to him, the approved text was better than the original in using resources that would compensate state governments for reducing fuel taxes to create aid for truck drivers, taxi drivers and to expand Auxílio Brasil and the gas voucher.
“A subsidy for everyone to use cheaper oil would be a dramatic mistake from an economic policy point of view. It would be socially regressive, unfair to the most fragile and irresponsible in the face of the seriousness of the international crisis”, he said this Tuesday (12), during a public hearing at the Economic Affairs Committee of the Federal Senate.
Still in the minister’s assessment, the worsening of inflationary pressure due to Russia’s war in Ukraine was decisive for the granting of aid in addition to tax reductions. However, according to him, the same scenario is what prevents a greater reduction in fuel prices.
“The war in Ukraine was an accelerated plunge into the future, because there will be an energy transition. If we give subsidy, we are impeding the transition. The price is going up and saying: use more solar energy, use more wind energy, more natural gas. Don’t use so much oil. If you keep the subsidy for a long time, you delay the energy transition, you delay Brazil’s plunge into the future”, he argued.
Guedes also raised a question, saying that if the PPI is a market price, what would be the point of selling a refinery if the privatized Petrobras would need to sell at market price in the end. “This is the enigma: why have a state-owned company to do something that has to be sold at market price?”.
“We are going to transfer property. With privatizations, we will have enough resources to supply the poverty eradication fund and the national reconstruction fund to recover the investment capacity of the public sector. Instead of the BNDES owning shares in private companies, we are going to sell those shares and supply the funds,” he said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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