President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said this Saturday (12) that Petrobras showed insensitivity to the population by announcing a mega-increase in fuel prices during the week.
“Petrobras demonstrates that it has no sensitivity towards the population. It’s Petrobras Futebol Clube and the rest is blown up,” he said.
He specifically criticized the company’s announcing the adjustment before Congress passed a bill that would cut diesel taxes. The text zeroed out federal taxes PIS and Cofins on fuel and also limited the collection of state ICMS.
The government’s expectation is that the tax changes allowed by Congress and already sanctioned by the president can reduce the cost of diesel by R$ 0.60. “Instead of announcing R$ 0.90 for a diesel readjustment, [a Petrobras] could have announced BRL 0.30,” Bolsonaro said.
The president said that during the week a request was made by Parliament for Petrobras to postpone the readjustment until after the vote. Asked who made the request to the company, Bolsonaro replied that he did not know and said that he could not have done it himself because the act could be classified as influence peddling.
“Laws, projects, contracts made in the past that transformed [sic] Petrobras in something, simply, in Petrobras Futebol Clube, a Brazilian Championship. They take care of their lives and the rest of Brazil, even in the crisis and with the war outside, whatever it takes. I regret Petrobras’ performance in this episode,” he said.
Now, with the tax cut, he says he expects the stations to partially reduce prices. “I hope that the stations that increased by R$0.90 from tomorrow will reduce by R$0.60 a liter of diesel, which is still very heavy for truck drivers,” he said.
Bolsonaro recalled that Brazil has no way of refining oil to meet its demand and said that, therefore, the country is a slave to prices practiced abroad. According to him, any new refinery is welcome, but they would still take three to five years to get off the ground.
He took the opportunity to once again criticize the measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that they boosted inflation. Then, however, he mentioned the impacts of the war on Europe as a cause for the current rise in prices and called for an end to the conflict.
“We ask God that this problem [entre] Russia and Ukraine resolve quickly, because we are suffering the consequences 10,000 kilometers away,” he said.
Earlier, the president also said that he is studying sending a bill to Congress next week to zero PIS/Cofins for gasoline.
The movement follows the most recent measure, taken on Friday night (11) after approval by Congress, when he sanctioned a law that zeros PIS/Cofins and ICMS for cooking gas and diesel until the end of 2022, election year. . Asked if the measure would be enough for the high fuel prices, caused by the war in Ukraine, Bolsonaro said no.
He said that he talked to the president of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto, to find out how much the rise in gasoline influences inflation, said he was dissatisfied with the mega-increase and said that it will not “interfere with the market”.
Bolsonaro also said that he gives hunches and makes suggestions directly to Silva and Luna, but denied that it is interference. “These are suggestions only”.
For him, Petrobras has “absurd profit”, at an “atypical” moment in the world. The president again complained about the company’s pricing policy, which he said he didn’t understand.
Such as sheet showed, a wing of the government defends the adoption of a quick solution to avoid that the increases continue to be passed on to the consumer.
The main thesis is the adoption of a subsidy for diesel, with immediate effect, to allow the government to pay for part of the amounts charged at the pumps. With this, resources from the National Treasury would be used directly to finance part of the prices.
The hypothesis is rejected by Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) at this time. He, however, admits the possibility restricted to diesel if the war continues or prices continue to climb.
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