President Lula excluded Correios and six other state-owned companies from the National Privatization Program. Companies would be handed over to the private sector at a bargain price. In a note, the Ministry of Communications reported that the government’s objective is to “reinforce the role of these companies in offering citizenship and further expand investments”
President Lula (PT) excluded Correios and six other state-owned companies from the National Privatization Program. Another 3 companies were withdrawn from the Investment Partnerships Program (PPI). The measure was announced in an extra edition of the Official Gazette this Thursday (6th), and responds to the recommendation of the Partnership and Investment Program Council.
In a note, the Ministry of Communications reported that the government’s objective is to “reinforce the role of these companies in offering citizenship and further expand investments”.
The seven companies exiting the government privatization program are:
— ECT (Brazilian Postal and Telegraph Company);
— EBC (Empresa Brasil de Comunicação);
— Dataprev (Social Security Technology and Information Company);
— Nuclep (Nuclebrás Equipamentos Pesados SA);
— Serpro (Federal Data Processing Service);
— ABGF (Brazilian Agency for the Management of Guarantor and Guarantee Funds SA);
— Ceitec (National Center for Advanced Electronic Technology SA).
In turn, those that are no longer part of the partnership program are:
— Conab (Warehouses and properties owned by the Companhia Nacional de
Supply);
— PPSA (Brazilian Company of Petroleum and Natural Gas Administration SA – PréSal Petróleo SA) and;
— Telebras (Telecomunicações Brasileiras SA).
Correios, state and growth
The privatization of the Post Office was one of the main agendas of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, alongside his Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes. In February 2021, the former president sent to Congress the proposal for a privatization model that provided for the sale of 100% of the state-owned company.
At the time, the forecast was that the auction to complete the sale would take place in the first half of 2022. However, the privatization of the Post Office stalled in the Senate, after being approved by the Chamber.
Throughout the electoral campaign, Lula stated that he was against the privatization of the country’s business assets and defended the use of state-owned companies to induce economic growth.
Already on the day of his inauguration, on January 1, he signed a decree determining the repeal of the privatization processes of eight state-owned companies, including Petrobras and Correios.
Until the closing of this article, the representations of Correios workers had not manifested themselves on the government’s decision to withdraw the company from the privatization program.
RBA