By Ricardo Brito
BRASILIA, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair
Bolsonaro said on Thursday that potential price fixing in the
gas station industry needs to be investigated, reopening an old
debate in Brazil over prices at the pump.
Bolsonaro said on Facebook Live that gas prices at
refineries are below what they were in the middle of last year
even after state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA
hiked gas and diesel prices this week in response to an attack
on Saturday on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Consumers are paying more than they should be, Bolsonaro
said.
"Now, a detail: the price at the refinery today is lower
than, if I'm not mistaken, July of last year, despite this 3%
increase," Bolsonaro said. "We know that at the end, at the
pump, the prices don't follow."
Mines and Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque would contact
the Brazilian oil regulator, the ANP, "to see what's happening
-a cartel, or whatever it may be," Bolsonaro said.
Brazilian authorities under other governments have
complained about possible price fixing by gas stations. Police
in the southern state of Parana opened a price fixing
investigation last year against the three largest gas station
chains: Raizen, Ipiranga, and Petrobras Distribuidora SA
, branded BR Distribuidora. The firms denied
wrongdoing at the time.
Ipiranga is a unit of Brazil's Ultrapar Participacoes SA
and Raizen is a joint venture between Cosan SA
and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Petrobras
Distribuidora, previously a unit of Petroleo Brasileiro, better
known as Petrobras, was privatized via a share offering in July.
The gas station industry in Brazil generally blames high
prices on a high tax burden and says the structure of the
industry, with 40,000 gas stations throughout Brazil, would make
widespread price fixing impractical.
(Reporting by Ricardo Brito; Additional reporting by Roberto
Samora and Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo; Writing by Gram
Slattery; editing by Grant McCool)
