2023-07-05 22:55:56
© Reuters. President of TCU, Bruno Dantas 02/03/2023 REUTERS/Rodrigo Antunes
By Ricardo Brito
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Due to requests for review, the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) on Wednesday suspended the judgment of a case that discusses the possibility of rebidding infrastructure concessions in the road, rail and airport sectors, a measure which may have a direct impact on the possible return by investors of the Galeão International Airport concession, in Rio de Janeiro.
The rapporteur for the consultation carried out by the federal government, Minister Vital do Rêgo, cast his vote in favor of the concessionaires’ decision to return their concessions.
However, Vital proposed in his statement 14 conditions for this devolution to take effect. Among them, it is necessary to guarantee the economic, financial and operational viability of the enterprise in order to sign this type of agreement.
In the vote, the rapporteur argued that the concession contracts are valid for 20 to 35 years. According to him, most of them are from 2012 and that, after that, there were changes in the economy.
The minister also stated that the possibility of re-bidding could benefit various economic sectors such as logistics and electricity. He pointed out that the investment potential could reach 80 billion reais in the coming years.
After Vital’s vote, TCU ministers Walton Alencar and Jhonatan de Jesus announced that they would request views of the consultation and that they would bring a vote for analysis within 30 days.
The starting point for the discussion was the concession of Galeão to the operator Changi, from Singapore, which went back on the decision to return the concession after the change of government, but is seeking a readjustment of the contract.
Galeão, despite its capacity for more than 30 million passengers, handled less than 6 million last year. Changi, which has an annual obligation to the Union in the amount of 1.3 billion reais, wants flexibility in the concession contract.
The president of the TCU, Bruno Dantas, stated that the discussion of the consultation was preceded by a public hearing with four ministers of the current federal government. He highlighted that a decision on the case does not concern the current or the previous government, but could benefit the country.
“An answer can give peace of mind to investors who have undertaken large infrastructure works”, he evaluated.
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