Petrobras’ private shareholders are having superprofits, says deputy

The government of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) is working on modeling a voucher for truck drivers and increasing the gas voucher. The plan is to adopt both benefits as the government’s response to rising fuel prices.

In an interview with CNN this Thursday (23), federal deputy Carlos Zarattini (PT-SP) stated that Petrobras has a non-standard profit rate.

“The government will have to approve a PEC that allows the use of this resource that it has in cash. The resources that Petrobras passes on in the form of royalties and taxes and dividends, he can do. But it’s important to think about this: these private Petrobras shareholders are making a super profit,” he said.

According to the deputy, the problem lies in the international parity of prices.

“Petrobras, among the oil companies, holds 30% of the profits. So it has an absolutely non-standard profit rate. This rate of profit comes a small part to the government, around 30 to 35% and the rest to private shareholders, mainly abroad. The problem of international price parity has to be resolved. Super profits have to be sorted out,” he said.

Zarattini stated that Brazil has advantages in oil production compared to other countries.

“Brazil has an advantage over other countries in the world. We have a lot of oil, we produce more than 3 million and 300 thousand barrels of oil a day. We consume 2 million 700 thousand,” he said.

“The government should make this company that is public, that is Brazilian, that is a large company, meet the interests of the Brazilian people first and foremost. That has to be done,” he added.