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Petrobras And Other Companies Will Only Be Sold If Congress Allows, Declares Government’s Secretary Of Privatization
The Special Secretary of Privatization, Divestments, and Markets at the Ministry of Finance, Salim Mattar, stated that the government is exploring ways to accelerate the sales of state-owned enterprises and emphasized that Petrobras, Caixa, and Banco do Brasil will not be privatized, despite the government’s intention to sell all 637 state-owned companies. The Government Plans To Hold More 22 Auctions This Year And Has 119 Projects Already Announced.
The secretary stated that only those that Congress allows will be sold and that the method to expedite the sale of state-owned enterprises is currently being discussed with various sectors, including the Ministry of Economy and the Civil House. “Key” companies for the country, such as Petrobras and some banks, have always faced resistance from Congress for negotiations.
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State-owned companies linked to defense will also not be privatized, at least during Jair Bolsonaro’s government. Salim Mattar further declared, “Some military companies of national security and companies that Congress deems should not be sold will not be sold.”
The Obstacles
In the secretary’s opinion, the state is slow, bureaucratic, and costly, and he compared the time taken to sell a company in the public sector with the private sector, “We need to establish a fast track to sell these companies faster. I cannot name names, but the fastest we will be able to sell will take between 10 and 11 months. A company that, in the private sector, would be sold in 60 or 75 days.”
Today, the government is working in complete alignment with the intention of making the state increasingly “smaller,” although bureaucratic issues are an obstacle.
The difficulty in selling shares of Banco do Brasil was cited by the secretary as an example of an impediment, “We cannot sell the Union’s shares because it has to go through the BNDES,” he stated.
The secretary knows that the government has a long way to go to implement the divestment plan and that negotiations with Congress will be difficult and complex.
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