Precatório: concessionaires give up influencing STF – 11/23/2023 – Panel SA

At the last minute, some of the largest logistics and infrastructure companies in the country tried to become part of the Federal Supreme Court process regarding the payment of court orders by the federal government.

In the opinion of advisors to Supreme Court ministers, they wanted to show that the case is not exclusive to the government — which must suffer retaliation after supporting the ‘anti-STF’ project in Congress.

The Association of Investors in Multisectoral Infrastructure (Moveinfra), which brings together CCR, Rumo, Ultracargo, EcoRodovias, Santos Brasil and Hidrovias do Brasil, asked to join as an interested party in the process, but, at the end of this Thursday (23), filed a request for withdrawal.

The case should be judged this week and deals with the impasse surrounding precatório (debt securities with definitive court sentences).

Advisors to STF ministers believe that the entry of this “heavyweight” team was an attempt to demonstrate to ministers that the matter is not only of interest to the government.

This is because, according to reports, the concessionaires could have joined as a party months ago, when the process was still being processed by the STF.

The precatório case is controversial and, behind the scenes, there are chances that it will not be decided, in retaliation for the government for having, through its leader in the Senate, Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), supported the bill that ends individual decisions in the Supreme Court (monocratic).

Background

In September, the AGU (Attorney General of the Union) asked the court to allow the immediate payment of the entire billion-dollar stock of court orders. Furthermore, he also wants an end to the annual limit for paying off these titles, established through a PEC (Constitutional Amendment Proposal) sanctioned by Jair Bolsonaro.

Part of the amount would be paid off as a financial expense, without affecting tax rules.
The objective is to prevent a tax bomb estimated at R$250 billion from exploding from 2027, when the ceiling ends.

In addition to the change in the payment regime, the government requests that rules be revoked that allow the use of court orders as currency, for example, when purchasing Union properties or to honor public concessions. This is the main interest of companies in the sector in the legislation.

Although the discussion in the Supreme Court has been going on for almost two months since the AGU’s request, the Association of Investors in Multisectoral Infrastructure (Moveinfra) — which represents the lobby of CCR, Rumo, Ultracargo, EcoRodovias, Santos Brasil and Hidrovias do Brasil — only presented a petition to be part of the process on Wednesday (22), after minister Luiz Fux requested that the action be included in the virtual plenary’s judgment agenda.

Fux made the request to the president of the court at around 6pm, with a suggestion of a deadline for the ministers to present their votes, in writing, between midnight on Thursday (23) and 11:59 pm on Friday (24) – the request is still was not dispatched.

At 7:58 pm, when the order had already been formalized, the entity asked to be admitted as amicus curiae (friend of the court, in a free translation), which would allow it to gather documents and memorials, in addition to other procedural acts.

Hours earlier, the President of the Supreme Court, Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, said at an event that he had spoken with the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, to resolve the issue of court orders later this month. He said that the Union’s unpaid bonds “are a corpse in the closet of billions.”

“We are looking for a solution and I hope that it can be reached soon. Because it is demoralizing for the Judiciary not to pay the federal government’s debts,” he said.

“We are looking for a solution and I hope that it can be reached soon, because it is demoralizing for the Judiciary not to pay the federal government’s debts”, he declared.

With Paulo Ricardo Martins

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