Petrobras pays dividends like “Santa Claus”; were BRL 100 billion in 2022

Minister Rui Costa, from the Civil House, criticized this Tuesday (20) the dividend remuneration policy for Petrobras shareholders, which paid around R$ 100 billion last year alone. For him, the company acts like “Santa Claus distributing toys at the end of the year”, a “disservice to the nation”.

“Any company in the world takes the highest volume to reinvest and continue to be strong and value its company’s shareholders and not distribute as if it were Santa Claus distributing toys at the end of the year. That [volume de dividendos] it is a disservice to Petrobras, a disservice to the nation”, he said during an event by the Parliamentary Entrepreneurship Front.

Costa says that the government carried out a comparative study with private companies from other publicly traded countries on the dividend remuneration policy, and that “there is no reference in the world of anyone who has done what they did with Petrobras”. The company was the second largest payer of dividends in the world last year according to a study by resource manager Janus Henderson, with the distribution of US$ 21.7 billion.

The minister stated that the orientation has changed, and that now the focus is on “investing to generate jobs, strengthen itself and be an energy company”.

Criticisms of the high dividends paid to shareholders are not new and have been made since the government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and by the opposition. However, in addition to the company’s stockholders, the Union itself is the beneficiary of the funds, representing 0.6% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) last year.

Government wants to have the power to dismiss BC president

In addition to criticizing the distribution of resources, Costa also took advantage of the event to charge the Central Bank to start reducing the basic interest rate, which will be revised later this Wednesday (21). “All of us are waiting for the Selic to fall so that we can celebrate even more expressive growth numbers”, he said.

And he also defended a change in legislation so that it is possible to change the president of the monetary authority without having to ask the Senate for authorization. Currently, the law says that the president needs to forward a request for early dismissal to the Legislature, but it depends on the approval of the senators.

Costa used the example of the United States to justify the measure, saying that the president can replace the Central Bank representative – in this case, the Federal Reserve – after 12 months of being elected. “Because if the nation legitimized an economic project, of the nation, through voting, of democracy, that is stronger than the ideological conception, the project of a person who is presiding over the Central Bank”, he quoted.

Costa’s criticism is due to the appointment of Roberto Campos Neto by former President Bolsonaro, who has a mandate until the end of 2024.

“Here in Brazil, we will have to wait for the end of the president’s second year to replace him. It is something that would need to be adjusted in the law. If we are to adopt the project of an independent Central Bank, let’s at least look at what has worked in other countries”, he added.

The artillery against Campos Neto comes from the beginning of the new government, circumvented on the other hand by Minister Fernando Haddad, of Finance, who acts as a kind of “fireman” maintaining frequent dialogues.