Abdo and Bolsonaro meet today in Itaipu

The President of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benítez, and his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, meet today at the headquarters of Itaipu Binacional, within the framework of the formal care of Joaquim Silva e Luna as as Brazilian director of the dam. This will be the first meeting of the leaders after the intense tension between the two governments for the purchase of electricity in Itaipu and after the announcement by the Brazilians of their intention to review (reduce) the payment that will be made. They pay to the Paraguayan Treasury for the transfer. unused energy.

Speculation indicates that today, Abdo Benítez could convey his concerns to Bolsonaro, particularly regarding the situation of the National Electricity Administration (ANDE). It should be recalled that the Paraguayan public company and Eletrobras have given themselves 90 days to find a solution in the annual electricity purchase modality, after the Brazilian public company had demanded that its Paraguayan counterpart acquires a larger amount of electricity. guaranteed energy (more expensive) and less additional or surplus energy (less expensive).

The ANDE authorities have badured that no one can impose their hiring levels and that to date, there had been no agreement for the sales of 2019 from Itaipu.

According to a publication of the newspaper Estadão, the government of Bolsonaro has already set as a priority to examine the costs of his country in Itaipu. For this reason, Eletrobras has already asked ANDE to rent a power station because it had been damaged in recent years, as it ended up acquiring the most expensive energy, while the Paraguayan company took the least expensive. . This allowed Paraguay to leverage and attract more investment, including from Brazilian industries, they questioned.

Another prejudice that the Brazilians claim to suffer concerns the payment of the transfer of unused energy in Paraguay, which went from $ 3 per megawatt hour (MWh) to $ 9 in 2009, as a result of the agreement. signed between Presidents Fernando Lugo and Luiz. Inácio Lula da Silva. With this change, Brazil is now paying about $ 360 million a year, resources that go to Fonacid. For Brazilians, it is an asymmetry that forces users in the Southeast to have more expensive energy. Therefore, it is a priority to re-badyze this agreement, said a source from the Bolsonaro administration to the media in São Paulo.

At the same time, another point of discussion will be to know what to do with the Itaipu tariff from 2023. Until then, the binational will pay its debt to Eletrobras and, to meet its commitments, will pay 2 billion USD per year, which must be generated from marketing your product (highest rate).

Thus, as in four years the commitments will be canceled, the countries will have to decide whether they keep the same rate and allocate the remaining money to their coffers (1,000 million USD for each country); or reduce Itaipu's selling price to reduce costs. Brazilians also indicated that it would be more practical to reduce the rate rather than obtain additional income.

For the moment, the Paraguayan government has not defined a clear position on these aspects and has only made it clear that it will form a multidisciplinary team to negotiate with Brazil. The idea is that, in this nucleation, lie not only politicians, but also experts from the energy sector, representatives of the academy and social referents; since it is a national cause.

In addition, the Paraguayan President has repeatedly badured that he has good relations with the President of the neighboring country.

SOURCE Diario Última Hora PY.