Brasília – In addition to increased tax collection due to economic growth, the Brazilian federal government’s revenues will receive another boost. The National Treasury estimates that state-owned companies should pay 16.1 billion Brazilian reals (US$ 8.9 billion) in dividends to the government this year. Dividend revenues concern the distribution of profit earned by state-owned companies to its shareholders, including the State.
The amount is lower than the 26.7 billion reals (US$ 14.8 billion) recorded last year. In 2009, however, the payment of dividends increased, because the federal government sought extra sources of funds. In order to compensate the decline in tax collection caused by the economic crisis, the National Treasury pushed for delayed dividends to be paid, and promoted special operations.
The most significant among these operations was the sale, to the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), of 3.5 billion reals (US$ 1.9 billion) worth of dividends by Eletrobras, which, in some cases, had not been paid since the late 1970s. The Treasury passed the right to receipt of the dividends on to the bank, and in exchange kept the revenues.
The projection of 16.1 billion reals (US$ 8.9 billion) in dividends was culled from the federal government’s General Budget, issued approximately one month ago. In spite of the reduction compared with last year, the revenues are larger than the estimated expenditure on the Family Purse income transfer programme, which received 13.1 billion reals (US$ 7.2 billion) this year.
Considering the historical series, the importance of dividends to the government’s revenues has increased. In 1997, payment of dividends totalled 822.3 million reals (US$ 457 million), 19 times less than the estimate for this year. According to the National Treasury, the growth is a result of economic improvement, which in turn has led the state-owned companies’ earnings to increase.
The Brazilian federal government has approximately 120 companies, as either a sole or majority shareholder. From that total, however, only the six most profitable companies in the country concentrate 97% of dividends paid to the National Treasury: the Bank of Brazil, the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), the Federal Savings Bank (Caixa Econômica Federal), the Post Office, Eletrobras and Petrobras.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
