Let’s tighten government to decide on fuel subsidy, says Lira

The president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), said in an interview released this Monday (30) that Congress will push the government to make a decision on whether or not to subsidize fuels, in an attempt to ease inflationary pressure. generated by the increase in diesel and gasoline.

To the Jornal da Record program, Lira said that the measure is already adopted by public and private oil companies around the world and that Brazil should follow the same path.

“We are going to tighten this week the government so that it decides whether or not to make a fuel subsidy,” he said. “The governments of the most advanced countries are giving subsidies for the rise in fuel, which is a worldwide problem and interferes in the life of any Brazilian.”

The discussion about granting fuel subsidies has gained strength again in recent weeks, after the replacement of Admiral Bento Albuquerque by economist Adolfo Sachsida at the Ministry of Mines and Energy.

Deputies from centrão parties —such as PL, PP and Republicans—, who support the re-election of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), defend the granting of subsidies to various types of fuel, including gasoline and diesel.

The assessment is that, if there is no articulation to approve the subsidy for diesel now, there is a risk that the rise in prices will harm the president’s campaign.

Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) and his team resist, however, on the grounds that there is no space in the spending ceiling for the measure and that the practical impact would be minimal.

For Lira, there are ways to resolve the impasse. “In this first moment, we prefer to deal with the division of dividends, so that these Petrobras dividends can, indeed, subsidize the issue of fuels in the very short term for Brazilians”, she defends.

On Friday, in another interview, the deputy had already defended the direct subsidy for diesel oil for truck drivers, in addition to assistance for taxi drivers and app drivers – the benefit could be given directly to the categories.

Lira believes that issues involving the spending cap could also be resolved by Guedes.

“Brazil has too many resources, Petrobras has it and Brazil has it. The problem is how much it fits in the spending ceiling or not. Hence these rumors of the calamity button that Guedes has to press,” he said. “What favors or not the use of PECs [propostas de emenda à Constituição] emergencies, of emergency moments like we live in the year 2020.”

“Sanitarily, we voted for a war PEC that allowed us to use R$ 700 billion more than what was foreseen in the budget. We are in a moment of war. War for food, war for energy, war for fuel, war for the subsistence of the population It’s not easy at the end for that least economically served citizen of the population to eat, move around, go to work.”

Lira reiterated his support for the privatization of Petrobras and accused the company of hiding “behind the fact that the federal government is in the majority so that all wear and tear is on the federal government and not on it.”

According to the president of the Chamber, the government could send a project to Congress and sell part of the oil company’s shares. “And this is subsidized by a bill of simple majority in Congress, and the government ceases to be the majority, still having a seat as president of the deliberative council, of the Petrobras advisory council or whatever name is given there, and with veto power .”

“But Petrobras is no longer a state-owned company and will live according to its subsistence needs, but it will bear the burdens and bonuses of maintaining its brand.”

Lira said again that tougher measures could be taken against the state-owned company, “since the cartel was reported, for example, in cooking gas.”

“If you take the exploration of the price of gas in the pre-salt with cents on the dollar and when this gas enters the Petrobras pipeline it goes to US$ 10, US$ 12, what justifies this cost?”, he asked. “Cade should have already given answers to these exaggerations of Petrobras’ monopoly. Petrobras can answer for that and much more.”