The federal government published on this Thursday (October 24) a decree with a series of measures in order to enable the auctions of railroads, announced in August last year and that has not got started yet.
Signed by President Dilma Rousseff and published on this Thursday (October 24) on the Official Gazette, the decree establishes the policy of free access to railroads that will be granted and specifies the role of Valec, state-owned company that acts in the railroad industry, in the new model created by the government for the industry.
The decree is a government’s response to the questions posed by the Brazilian Court of Audit (TCU), which analyzes the new concession model for railroad and the notice for auction of the railroad stretches.
Free access to carriers
The main change determined by the decree is the separation, in future concessions, between infrastructure exploration and provision of railroad transport service.
The separation is necessary because, in the new model, the government will auction construction of railroads, but it will own, through Valec, their freight transport capacity, which will then be resold to any company interested in using the rails – ensuring thus the free access to carriers and competition.
For this purpose, the decree also states that one of the Valec’s functions will be “to buy and sell the right of use of the transport capacity of the railroads operated by third parties.”
In the model adopted in previous concessions, the company that receives a railroad becomes the sole operator of the transport in that stretch, without any competition.
Warranties
The decree also sets the guarantees that Valec can give for the purchase of the right to transport freight through the stretches that will be auctioned.
Among the mechanisms that the state-owned company can use are: credit from the marketing agreements for the transport capacity by railroads; Federal Public Debt securities contributed by the federal government; pledge of movables or rights to its equity; the mortgage of its real estate, the liens; and other agreements that produce warranty effect.
Last year, the government announced a package for investment in construction of 10,000 kilometers of new railroads. According to the model, auctions will be made for the choice of concessionaires that will build and operate 13 new stretches. The government intends to auction the first stretch this year.
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