The government is considering extending the term of pre-1993 port contracts that have expired or are about to expire, a possibility that was no longer considered. Most of these terminals remain operating via an injunction, considering that they have the right to stay in the area, which belongs to the Union. “There is a discussion with Congress and in the government for a presidential decree to be made that allows the operation of pre-93 ships”, said yesterday the Minister of Ports, Helder Barbalho, in the “Forum Infraestrutura de Transporte”, of the newspaper “Folha de S. Paul".
If this actually happens, part of the 93 leases provided for in the port concessions program will not go to auction. In the port of Santos (SP), for example, there are four companies with pre-93 contracts that are still open and whose areas are on the list of new leases. For the time being, however, the Secretariat of Ports (SEP) is not working with the scenario of withdrawing terminals from the auction, since the decree is just a possibility whose endorsement depends on an assessment by various areas of the government.
Questioned by journalists, the minister did not provide further details on the subject, which was one of the most controversial during the course of the new Ports Law, from 2013. The Brazilian Association of Port Terminals (ABTP), advocate of an additional term for these contracts , estimates that only among its members there are 30 pre-93 terminals that could immediately invest R$ 11 billion in facilities, which would be ideal for the
government to create a positive agenda and unlock investments in the sector.
Companies with pre-93 terminals heard by Valor have already said that they intend to challenge the notices if the government actually takes the areas where they are installed to auction. This was one of the reasons that led the SEP to change the composition of the blocks to be auctioned, prioritizing areas free of judicial impasse. The first stage of the leasing program will take place on the 9th, at BM&FBovespa. Four terminals will be auctioned, three in Santos (two for cellulose and one for grains) and one in Vila do Conde (PA), for grains.
The pre-93 contracts are from a time before the port tenders. The companies had a lease contract (generally valid for 10 or 20 years) with the dock companies which were successively renewed.
But in 1993, with the first Ports Law (No. 8.630), the criterion for a private entity to explore a Union port area became the bidding process. The lease term now has a ceiling of 25 years, renewable for the same period only once. The law said that the terminals that preceded it should be “adapted” in their deadlines, but this, says the ABTP, was never done.
Since then, the government has been saying that these terminals were no longer entitled to an additional period because there was no legal backing to allow more time for exploration of public areas that had not been tendered.
“There must be pragmatism in this country, pragmatism does not involve ideology. What matters to the country? It's not the investment, isn't it the public interest?”, ABTP president, Wilen Manteli, told journalists with a smile on his face after listening to Barbalho's speech.
ABTP has been defending the publication of a decree with an additional term to the pre-93 contracts since the new Ports Law was sanctioned, in 2013. According to Manteli, the idea would be to give the ten years that Congress approved in the processing of the law. “President Dilma vetoed not the right to adapt the term, but the competence to extend it, which belongs to the granting authority and not to Congress.”
Source: Valor Econômico
By: Fernanda Pires
