President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) resumed, this Friday morning (17), criticism of Petrobras and said that the company “could plunge Brazil into chaos”.
Bolsonaro’s statement comes a day after Petrobras’ board of directors rejected a government request to hold back fuel prices. In an extraordinary meeting on Thursday (16), the collegiate reinforced that the decision on prices is attribution of the board of the state.
“The federal government, as a shareholder, is against any readjustment in fuels, not only because of Petrobras’ exaggerated profit in the midst of the global crisis, but also because of the public interest provided for in the State-Owned Companies Law”, wrote Bolsonaro on his social media.
“Petrobras can plunge Brazil into chaos. Its president, directors and advisers are well aware of what happened with the truckers’ strike in 2018, and the disastrous consequences for Brazil’s economy and the lives of our people.”
Even on Thursday night, Bolsonaro had already fired criticism against Petrobras.
During his weekly live, Bolsonaro said that a new adjustment by the oil company in the price of fuel would have “political interest to reach the federal government”.
He did not mention, during the transmission, the extraordinary meeting of the Petrobras board.
“I hope that Petrobras does not want to increase diesel, increase gasoline in these days that we are negotiating here with parliament”, he declared.
“I can only understand that it would be a readjustment by Petrobras now with political interest to reach the federal government.”
THE Sheet found that the extraordinary meeting of the council was convened at the request of ministers Adolfo Sachsida (Mines and Energy) and Ciro Nogueira (Casa Civil), who have participated in the government’s task force to try to convince the state-owned company.
The assessment is that readjustments at this time overshadow the positive effects of the measures being negotiated in Congress, which could reduce the impacts of escalating inflation on Bolsonaro’s popularity.
The company is expected to announce a readjustment in the price of diesel in the coming days and the meeting was a last card by the government to try to avoid the increase. The meeting was scheduled by the chairman of the board, Marcio Weber, and had as its theme “price increase”.
Bolsonaro has been pressing the company’s management to hold transfers while putting into practice a package of measures to try to reduce prices, which includes the establishment of a ceiling for ICMS rates, approved by Congress on Wednesday (15).
The pressure comes up against resistance from the company’s management, which argues that the maintenance of lagged prices creates a risk of diesel supply in the country, since about 25% of the market is supplied by imported products.
The board of directors reinforced that the company’s statute gives the board the authority to define readjustments. The decision is taken by a committee formed by the company’s president, José Mauro Coelho, and by the directors of Finance and Commercialization and Logistics, Rodrigo Araújo and Cláudio Mastella.
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