President Jair Bolsonaro expects Petrobras to follow the international market and reduce fuel prices, after the drop in the price of a barrel of oil.
The price of a barrel of Brent oil, the most traded internationally, closed the day at US$ 99. Last week, the barrel cost more than US$ 139, the highest value in 14 years, which led to Petrobras to promote price readjustments of gasoline, diesel and cooking gas, announced last Thursday (10).
“We are having news that in recent days the price of oil abroad has dropped a lot. We expect Petrobras to follow the price drop abroad. For sure, it will do it from there”, said the president during an event to launch the new legal framework for securitization and rural guarantees, at Palácio do Planalto, in Brasília.
The president again criticized Petrobras’ decision to increase fuel prices even before the National Congress and the government approved measures to contain the increase in prices. One of these measures was the enactment of a complementary law that unifies the value of the Tax on the Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS) on fuels. The text was sanctioned last Friday (11).
“We only regret that if Petrobras had waited one more day, we could, when the company announces the readjustment of R$ 0.90 in the liter of diesel, which is not our responsibility, but exclusive to Petrobras, also have announced the decrease of R$ 0.60 in the liter of fuel. For one day, if Petrobras had waited, we would only have had an increase of R$0.30 in the price of diesel,” he said.
In his speech today, President Jair Bolsonaro also highlighted that his government has been committed to reducing taxes. In addition to the Tax on Financial Operations (IOF) that is levied on foreign exchange operations, he cited the reduction of the Tax on Industrial Products (IPI), made last week, which may be expanded. “A few days ago, we had the IPI issue here, at 25%. And there is a possibility, according to the [que] Paulo Guedes said to reduce even more for cars, motorcycles and white goods. It’s a fantastic thing because this has never been heard of here in Brazil”.
