Government considers it easy to obtain more than R$ 100 billion in dividends after Petrobras record

The government considers it easy to pass the R$ 100 billion mark in dividends to be received this year from state-owned companies after Petrobras’ record payment for the second quarter profit. The calculations open the way for Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) to register a primary surplus in the central government (which adds up the Treasury, Central Bank and Social Security).

In the first half of the year, the National Treasury recorded the receipt of R$ 44.9 billion in dividends from all state-owned companies. Now, with the payment of around R$ 25 billion from Petrobras, the number will rise to around R$ 70 billion.

The dividends from Petrobras in the third quarter will still enter as revenue, as will the gains to be passed on to the Treasury by other companies, which should be boosted by the request for expansion of resources made by the government to large state-owned companies (mainly Caixa and BNDES).

Before that, the government had already asked BNDES for a boosted transfer of resources this year, which have already been paid. There were BRL 18.9 billion related to 2020 and 2021 profits that entered 2022.

The dividends received so far, considering those of Petrobras, already far exceed the expectation released by the Ministry of Economy on Friday (22), that R$ 54.8 billion would be received in the year in dividends in 2022. According to technicians, the expectations used for the recipes were out of step.

Petrobras has had its profit boosted by rising oil prices on the global market. The company had a profit of R$ 54.3 billion in the second quarter of 2022, as a result of the strong impact of the mega-increases in fuel prices in March. The company announced the record distribution of BRL 87.8 billion in dividends, of which around BRL 25 billion goes to the Federal Government.

The state-owned company’s profit was the second largest ever recorded by a Brazilian company, only below the result announced by Petrobras itself in the fourth quarter of 2020 (R$ 70.6 billion, in values ​​adjusted for inflation).

The prospect of a blue in the 2022 accounts has been celebrated by the government. In the first half, there were BRL 14.4 billion in the positive – a result boosted by the extraordinary revenues obtained with the privatization of Eletrobras (BRL 26 billion).

The government also outlines the scenario of improvement after the maneuver provided by the constitutional amendment enacted last year that authorized changing the spending ceiling rules and postponing the payment of precatories (debts to be settled by the State after a court order).