Entrepreneurs report embarrassment with electoral bias of ministerial events

With President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in second place in the polls, Minister Adolfo Sachsida (Minas e Energia) has gathered representatives from the electricity, oil and gas and mining sectors in meetings and made promises for an eventual second. chief’s mandate.

Guests reported to Sheet that, with his promises, Sachsida causes embarrassment by seeking support for Bolsonaro during institutional meetings aimed at discussing the sector. Although they praise the work of the minister at the helm of the portfolio, the businessmen considered the electoral bias in the events inappropriate.

Electoral legislation prohibits requests to vote before the official start of the contest. However, according to advisers at Palácio do Planalto, Bolsonaro asked his ministers to speak well of the president and to commit to defining policies for a second term.

With the meetings, Sachsida also suggests that he will continue in charge of the ministry in an eventual second term, which would facilitate the execution of a program to be defined in the meetings between the ministry and the sector.

In preliminary conversations with market players before sending the ministry’s formal invitation, Sachsida promised, for example, to attack subsidies given by the CDE (Energy Development Account) to lower energy tariffs.

According to reports, the minister wants to put an end to the CDE and, instead, the subsidy would come from the Union Budget. The reduction of tariffs, in this case, would be the responsibility of the National Congress in defining the allocation of resources and would have a strong political influence.

The minister, according to reports, also no longer wants to allocate financial aid with resources from the National Treasury to energy generators that have already established themselves as competitors in the market, in the case of wind and solar plants. The segment continues to receive incentives, but has already been selling energy auctions at competitive prices, something that would no longer justify the benefit.

The subsidy, in Sachsida’s assessment, would only make sense for those who really need it, such as low-income consumers who today enjoy the social tariff.

On another front, the minister also intends to put an end to the abuse of contracts that, in the end, impose exorbitant prices for the National Integrated System (SIN).

For this, the minister wants to end the barrier of energy contracts so that the supplier can always deliver the cheapest energy, regardless of the generating source.

Today, contracts link energy to a source, such as thermoelectric. That’s why the electricity bill became too expensive during the water crisis, which greatly burdened consumers, both residential and business.

This effect also helped to pressure inflation measured by the IPCA.

These are some of the topics that, according to the guests, will be discussed during the Mines and Energy Market Initiative Workshop, which will take place over three days at the ministry itself starting next Wednesday (27).

According to the invitation, the objective of the seminar is to improve the legal frameworks of the sector, to confer more transparency and competition, in addition to putting an end to what the minister calls “misallocation of resources”, something that Sachsida, as a former advisor of the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, had been trying to change public policies, especially those aimed at direct and indirect subsidies (through interest granted by public banks).

According to the schedule, on the first day, the secretaries of each area of ​​the ministry will give a short talk.

On the morning of the second day, directors of regulatory agencies will give a presentation on regulatory frameworks. Camila Bomfim, deputy director general of Aneel (National Electric Energy Agency), Rodolfo Saboia, director general of ANP (National Petroleum Agency) and Victor Bicca, director general of ANM (National Mining Agency) will be present. ).

In the afternoon, debates begin in thematic rooms dedicated to each area of ​​the ministry – electric energy, oil and gas, mining, and sectoral planning.

On the third day, the seminars and thematic debates continue until the conclusion, when a document with the priority initiatives will be presented.

​Procuado, Minister Adolfo Sachsida did not respond until the publication of this report.