Government asks state-owned companies to accelerate payment of dividends for 2022

The Ministry of Economy sent official letters to BNDES, Caixa Econômica, Banco do Brasil and Petrobras about the possibility of changing dividend payment policies, to cover expenses with tax waiver measures on fuel. Of these, only Banco do Brasil responded, stating that it would not be possible to change the form of payment of dividends.

The special secretary of the Treasury and Budget, Esteves Colnago, said this Monday (25) that the PEC of benefits and the exemption of PIS/Cofins on gasoline and ethanol generated an expense of R$ 58 billion.

According to the secretary, the creation of extra expenses made the Ministry of Economy try to create extraordinary income. “Today we have BRL 44 billion, BRL 26 billion from Eletrobras and another BRL 18.6 billion from BNDES. So part of the expense, in a way, has already been borne with revenue that wasn’t coming in. But we would like a part of the revenue lost with the tax waiver to be borne by these dividends.”, he explains.

“You have the BNDES, for example, which can pay up to 60% of dividends, and it usually pays below that. What we are asking is: are you able to approach 60%? Can you, in this exercise, change the policy from semiannual to quarterly?” said Colnago.

Minister Paulo Guedes, on July 14, stated that the government already had, through extraordinary revenues, the amount necessary to cover expenses with the exemption and the PEC.

“We did it right and kept our commitment to future generations to pay for our wars. We have unbudgeted extraordinary revenues and we have unbudgeted extraordinary revenues, around BRL 57 billion, which exactly cover the BRL 41 billion PEC plus the tax reduction of around BRL 16 billion”.

The special secretary also highlighted that a possible request for anticipation of dividends for the year 2023, by these companies, has not yet been decided.