After resisting pressure from the government, Petrobras announced this Friday (17) increases of 5.2% in the price of gasoline and 14.2% in the price of diesel, claiming that the oil market underwent structural change and that it is necessary to seek convergence with international prices.
After 99 days without increases, the average price of gasoline at the state-owned refineries will rise from R$3.86 to R$4.06 per liter. The price of diesel will go from R$ 4.91 to R$ 5.61 per liter. The last adjustment occurred 39 days ago.
On Thursday (16), the company’s board of directors rejected the government’s request to avoid readjustments, arguing that the definition of prices is the responsibility of the executive board. The meeting had been convened at the request of the Chief of Staff, Ciro Nogueira.
The request was a last gambit by the government to try to avoid the increase amid the effort to pass a package of measures to try to reduce prices, which, according to President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), could lower gasoline and diesel prices in R$2 and R$1 per liter, respectively.
On Wednesday (15), Congress concluded the vote on a bill that establishes a ceiling for ICMS rates on fuel, which can reduce the average price of gasoline by R$ 0.657 per liter, according to a projection by consultant Dietmar Schupp.
Next week, Congress debates the so-called PEC for fuels, which authorizes the government to zero federal taxes on gasoline and compensate states that were willing to reduce the ICMS tax on diesel and cooking gas.
Shortly after the board meeting, Petrobras was attacked by Nogueira and the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).
The minister asked for “enough is enough” and said that the company “cannot abandon Brazilians in the biggest crisis of the last century”. The deputy said that the company is in a “state of war” against Brazil and compared readjustments to “a bombing”.
Also on Thursday night, in his weekly live, Bolsonaro said that a new fuel price adjustment would have “political interest to hit the federal government”. This Friday morning, he again criticized the company.
“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.”
Defender of changes in the company’s pricing policy, the FUP (Federação Única dos Petroleiros) stated that the readjustment “is yet another negligence of the federal government with the Brazilian worker, the biggest victim of the soaring prices of derivatives and lack of control of inflation”.
In a note released this Friday, Petrobras said that “it is sensitive to the moment that Brazil and the world are facing and understands the effects that fuel prices have on the lives of citizens” but that the global energy market is “in a situation defiant”.
“With the acceleration of the global economic recovery from the second half of 2021 and, notably, with the beginning of the conflict in Eastern Europe in February 2022, there has been a lower supply and greater demand for energy, with an increase in prices and greater volatility in international quotations”.
The company also stated that, with the readjustments, “it reiterates its commitment to the practice of competitive prices and in balance with the market, while avoiding the immediate transfer to domestic prices of the volatility of international quotations and the exchange rate “.
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