Hurdles for Bolsonaro’s privatization plan

Elected with a promise of privatizing state companies and selling off government assets, Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has boasted on social media about the amounts his administration has raised through privatization and concession projects in its first year. One of the main projects of his government has been the Investment Partnership Program (PPI), which aims to transfer several infrastructure works in the country—along with state-owned companies—to the private sector.

In 2019, the government raised BRL 96 billion as a result of these sales. Among them were the auctioning off of 12 airports (BRL 4.3 billion), port terminals in Santos and Paranaguá (BRL 700 million), and part of the North-South railroad (BRL 2.7 billion).

However, many of these operations aren’t strictly privatizations, for example, the sales of natural assets such as the Enchova and Pampo oil fields and the Pasadena oil refinery. There were also the divestments of shares in Neoenergia, the Guarantee Fund of Educational Credits, the Brazilian Reinsurance Institute, as well as in Petrobras and some of its subsidiaries.

In truth, the federal government only submitted one pure privatization bill to Congress, that of state-owned electricity distributor Eletrobras, which has yet to progress.

The scenario contrasts with Jair Bolsonaro’s 2018...