Minas Gerais resumes plans to privatize Codemig
The governor of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema, circulated this week in Brasília decided to find ways of taking his state out of its challenging fiscal situation. Yet the solutions don't depend only on him and his secretaries. Minas, Brazil's third-largest state economy, has been posting budget deficits since 2015, and Mr. Zema said his administration had as priority regularizing the public accounts without increasing the tax burden.
Mr. Zema said he would resume, right after the municipal elections, negotiations with the Legislative Assembly to privatize Codemig, the state's development company, whose main asset is a niobium mine in the city of Araxá. Alternatives to make use of the company's potential and generate revenue for the state are being negotiated with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil (CVM), the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and the Planalto Palace. BNDES is expected to acquire part of Codemig, which Mr. Zema believes is worth dozens of billions of reais.
On another front, the governor is trying to negotiate the passage of a bill in Congress that helps states. In an interview with Valor on Monday evening, Mr. Zema pointed out that Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Rio de Janeiro and Goiás need to make an agreement with the National Treasury. "We had the Mansueto Plan [for bailing out states] to be voted. Then came the pandemic, there was a series of priority changes. But now we have a new bill and are confident that Congress will consider the situation of these four states," he said, adding that he believes Chamber of Deputies Speaker Rodrigo Maia (Democrats, DEM, of Rio de Janeiro) is "well aware" of the importance of this matter for those four states.
"The regime that Rio de Janeiro adopted was made, as I understand it, much to address the situation of Rio. And Rio Grande do Sul, Minas and Goiás have some particularities. So, it is as if a [refinancing program] was made to serve only one case. And we need to be more comprehensive. It's distinct situations. Rodrigo Maia is very aware of the need of the other states and will be following that closely."
Since he took office, he said his administration settled two months of late salaries to servants. It also helped clear the name of 240,000 servants who had problems with payroll loans, disbursing "more than R$500 million," and resumed transfers to municipalities that his predecessor had halted. At this moment, however, he said he couldn't yet ensure to the 500,000...
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