President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said this Monday (6th) that a privatization of Petrobras is “very difficult” to happen and “hardly goes forward”, although the federal government supports the measure and has given, according to him, the kick-off for the privatization process of the oil company.
He also returned to attack the profits made by the company. “A privatization of Petrobras is very difficult. I talked to the Minister of Mines and Energy, he has this intention, he started it off, but he hardly ever goes ahead with it. Running everything right would take about four years,” he said in an interview with the Agro+ channel.
Bolsonaro was referring to a statement by the new Minister of Mines and Energy, Adolfo Sachsida, who in May, upon taking office, stated that he would ask Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) to include the topic in the National Privatization Program, as a first measure of his management. Sachsida also promised studies for the privatization of the company.
According to the president, such a process has to be “modulated”. “Whoever pays the most can’t just take it. You now have the state monopoly in here and you were going to have another private monopoly out there,” he said.
Bolsonaro criticized the international parity policy, responsible for the variation in fuel prices according to the dollar value and implemented in 2016.
“Petrobras has its social function provided for in the Constitution. Why don’t you go ahead with it [privatização]? because that [Petrobras] works in part as a black box, that we have to resolve this issue. It’s not easy if you fight these oligopolies, monopolies and with a nationalized company that doesn’t owe anyone satisfaction. She is hostage to [acionistas] minority,” he said.
The president also said that Petrobras has “enormous greed” and classified its profit as “exaggerated” – in May, the company declared its third-largest quarterly profit in history, at R$44.5 billion.
“You see other oil companies in the world lower their profit margins to, exactly, help their countries. Petrobras has increased its profit margin during crises and continues to do so. We are trying to change,” he said.
According to the president, Minister Sachsida has faced difficulties in making changes at Petrobras because they depend on board meetings and “enormous bureaucracies”. He said he had no participation in the increase in fuel prices and said he hopes there will be no further readjustments until the changes take place.
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(Posted by Estevão Bertoni)
Source: CNN Brasil
