Tarcísio says he is evaluating plan B for the privatization of the Port of Santos

The governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, said this Monday (2nd) that he will defend the privatization of the Port of Santos despite opposition from the federal government and is considering a plan B for the concession.

“I will insist on the privatization of the Port of Santos”, Tarcísio told journalists after a meeting with secretaries at the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, stating that he considers the concession’s investment attraction potential, estimated at around R$ 20 billion. “But we will consider a plan B,” he added, without giving further details, in case there is no agreement with the federal government.

As Minister of Infrastructure in the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, Tarcísio had the privatization of the port on the coast of São Paulo, the largest in Latin America, as one of his main projects.

The progress of the process is stopped at the TCU (Tribunal de Contas de União), whose endorsement is necessary to move forward, since it is a federal asset. Unlike the Bolsonaro government, however, the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office the day before, has signaled its opposition to privatization.

The Minister of Ports and Airports, Márcio França, said this Monday in Brasília that the port authority will not be privatized. “There are no problems with privatizing the terminals, we would like the terminals to be privatized, but we are not going to privatize the port authority”, he stated.

The governor, who took office the day before, also reaffirmed his intention to privatize the state’s basic sanitation company, Sabesp, and added that he considers the model made with Eletrobras to be a good one, which was privatized last year by the federal government through of a stock offering that diluted the company’s control on the stock exchange.