Dilma requires ministers to deliver concessions within the deadline

Two government sources said that on this Tuesday the President Dilma Rousseff demanded her team to meet the schedules for concessions in the areas of transportation and logistics and required agility from the Ministry of Finance in setting rates of return on the stretches of railroads that go to auction until early 2014.

In a time of spending cuts and low popularity, the government wants to put into practice the positive agenda of concessions, which is expected to generate more than $57.45 billion in investments only in the areas of roads and railroads, helping the country’s growth in the coming years.

According to the two sources, who requested anonymity, Dilma wants to meet all schedules submitted for the concessions, including the auction of high-speed rail connecting the cities of Campinas, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, but without skipping steps. One of the sources reported that Dilma was emphatic when she said that the schedule for the concession auction for the operation of the bullet train is maintained for September 19.

Regarding freight railroads, the President required the Finance Minister Guido Mantega to give a definition of the rates of return of other stretches that will be auctioned to the private sector. For now, the government has only calculated the rate of return for the first stretch of railroad that goes to auction on October 18, connecting the cities of Açailândia (state of Maranhão) and Barcarena (state of Pará).

The return rate for this stretch was set at 8.5%, and authorities said this rate should be the ceiling for the other railroads that will go to auction until the beginning of next year.

Besides Mantega, the Chief Minister of the Civil House Gleisi Hoffmann, the Minister of Planning Miriam Belchior, the CEO of Empresa de Planejamento e Logística (EPL) Bernardo Figueiredo, and Transport Minister César Borges attended the meeting.