Government will extend fuel exemption for 60 days, says Prates

Chosen by the PT for the presidency of Petrobras, Senator Jean Paul Prates (PT-RN) said that the MP (provisional measure) should be published by the government this Sunday (1st) or Monday (2nd) to renew the exemption of fuels for 60 days.

The decision by Lula Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) team was taken to avoid a significant increase in gas stations right at the beginning of his term, after the tax cuts adopted by Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in an election year and which were valid until 31 December. According to Prates, for diesel and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas, cooking gas) a greater exemption is being studied – from six months to a year.

The extension had been discussed for weeks between Lula’s finance minister, Fernando Haddad, and Bolsonaro’s economy minister, Paulo Guedes. If the exemption, initially scheduled to end on December 31, were not extended, prices would increase right at the beginning of the PT administration.

Guedes himself began to prepare the measure in the final stretch of his term, since there was a fear that the PT would blame the Bolsonaro administration for the possible increase in fuel prices at the pumps.

Haddad had found the 90-day period suggested by Guedes too long, but he had signaled to members of the economic team that he agreed with a 30-day extension. After talking with Lula, however, Haddad asked the Bolsonaro government not to edit any such measure.

Prates said this Sunday that “there is no reason to increase fuel in Brazil” and that the exemption is assured for another 60 days.

During this period, the government will study what the future for fuels will be. “There is no reason to increase the price on the first day and on the 2nd. Over the period, we will study and all impacts will be analyzed and passed on to the market. Whatever the market responds to, we will try to follow up”, he said. Plates.

Prates was announced as the man chosen for Petrobras by Lula on Friday. On that day, the nominee had already spoken about withholding taxes on fuels for up to 60 days, defended a new pricing policy and said it was essential to create a stabilization fund for values.

For him, the elected government needs to be aware of opportunists in the narrative of exemption and that “there is a warning in relation to the rise of the dollar that may happen”.

He added that he is still in a transition group in the management of Petrobras, and that he will join the company in the first fifteen days of January, in a process of “compliance” and verification of the curriculum, in an interim period in the company.

However, he said that during this period it is already “more or less agreed” that there will be no traumatic or absolute decision on anything, “unless it is necessary for an emergency”.

“For that reason, we imagine that we manage to manage and monitor the behavior of the texts and there shouldn’t be any trauma. What was more important or significant would happen would be the automatic return of the encumbrance of federal taxes. big moves,” he said.