Meirelles defends dividing Petrobras into three or four companies and privatizing

Former finance minister and former president of the Central Bank Henrique Meirelles defended this Wednesday (6th) the slicing, followed by privatization, of Petrobras.

The purpose of the proposal is to put an end to the monopoly position of the company, to create an environment of greater competition between the smaller companies resulting from the operation.

The statement was made during a lecture to the financial market, part of the 8th Annual Brazil Investment Forum, a virtual event organized by Bradesco BBI. He was asked about the best policy to manage fuel prices in the country.

Meirelles was introduced in December 2021 as part of the economic committee of the campaign of pre-candidate for the Presidency of the Republic João Doria (PSDB-SP).

“There can be no political interventionism. This is serious. And, if so, it is better to leave it as it is, with international parity, and Petrobras fixing the price,” said Meirelles.

According to him, the appropriate structural solution would be the restructuring of the company, following the model adopted for Telebrás, still in the 1990s, resulting in the current model of telecommunications.

“It’s a difficult discussion because it’s a monopoly company, half private, half public, [o que] it’s an extravagant concept. And how does a monopoly company compete? It’s very simple. Divide Petrobras into three or four companies, privatize these companies, and they will compete. Then the market determines”, he evaluated.

Asked about the possibility of Lula returning to the presidency, he says that it is too early to know what his economic policy would be like. Meirelles was president of the BC for the eight years of PT’s administration.

“Is he going to choose Lula in the first term, when he clearly was a government of fiscal austerity, with the Central Bank with operational independence, which was what generated that growth in Brazil?”, he asked.

For Meirelles, the option of a Lula government like that of the second term would lead to a policy of relaxation of fiscal austerity. Or, in the third hypothesis, Lula could choose to follow the line of Dilma’s administration, which would have been marked by fiscal expansion and interventionism.

“You can’t know at this point because, in the electoral dispute and with the radicalization, radicalism on the one hand, and radicalism on the other… He is a pragmatic subject, [espero] who can follow a policy that he followed and that worked”, he says.

Meirelles left the Secretary of Finance and Planning of the state of São Paulo on Friday (1st). On Saturday, he announced his affiliation to União Brasil, after having given up running for the Senate for Goiás, his home state, as had been announced.

At the event, Meirelles also defended that the next government should focus on administrative reform, in the first place, to reduce the weight of expenses with the public machine, opening space for expanding investments and social programs.

Then it would be the turn of a tax reform. To eliminate this tax complexity in Brazil, which generates the tax war, among other problems.

“It is necessary to do as it is in the whole world, a simple value-added tax. The project is ready, there is not even an intellectual challenge, but it requires political capital”, said the former minister.

He also defended opening up to international private capital in infrastructure investments.