Translator: Enriqueta Chávez L.
There are no reasons to privatize Mexican Petroleum (Pemex), neither to continue allowing Private investment in this sector, the oil company problem is rigorously financier, and has its origin in the high indebtedness which has the own State delimited the Company , at the same time it has elevated the fiscal load in which is submitted.
The previous was declared by Mario Di Costanzo, secretary of the Public Treasury of the Legitimate Government of Mexico, which together, with cabinet companion, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, secretary of National Patrimony presented today, in press conference, the position of the Government who heads Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, about the financial situation of Mexican Petroleum.
When press conference started, Claudia Sheinbaum indicated that “the spurious government is bordering Pemex to a greater uncapitalization and indebtedness with the only intention of increasing the unconstitutional incorporation of private capital in the energy sector, under the false statement of lack of public resources”. This is confirmed —she said— with the diminution of resources to Pemex they do this by increasing his load and also increasing his real deficit by contracting more debt.
Two arguments of the Calderonista Government strategy were stated by the Lopezobradorista Functionary. On one hand, she remembered, the Union Congress approved in 2005, a series of reforms known as the “New Fiscal Regime of Pemex” that would to take effect in 2006.
“This new regime would have implied that the direct fiscal load of Mexican Petroleum happened to represent 63 percents of its income in 2005, to 55 percents in 2006, that is, near than 150 thousand millions pesos (almost the double of the debt contracted in the first trimester of 2007)”, emphasized Sheinbaum Pardo.
Nevertheless, “in an arbitrary way and contravening this reform, the spurious government invents to Pemex a “primary over plus” of the same amount that it should have receive, with the only purpose of justifying, in a countable way, its legal omission and the fact that those resources do not arrive to Pemex.
In summary, the secretary of National Patrimony of the Legitimate Cabinet affirmed that while the objective of the reform to the fiscal regime of Pemex was to increase their resources, their own resources, what the Secretary of Treasury do is to declare a primary surplus, and it clears to those resources with the countable aim of maintaining a deficit situation.
When abounding in the hard data, Claudia Sheinbaum, indicated that the asphyxiation Policy to Pemex caused that when finishing year 2006, the oil company contributed to the state treasury 81 percent of its total income (18 percents more than in 2005 and 26 percent more of those than by law had corresponded in 2006). And for 2007, the over plus that was established to the oil company is of 147 thousand millions pesos, that is why at the end of the present fiscal year, they will reduce from Pemex more than 307 thousand million pesos that correspond to it by law, “with no other purpose than the one to sustain the countable fiction said by the spurious government about the budgetary balance, affirmed Sheinbaum.
As a second strangling factor to the Mexican oil Company, functionaries of the Legitimate Government indicated the inadequate use of the Projects of Impact Deferred in the Public Cost (Pidiregas)
About this, the secretary of National Patrimony of the Lopezobradorista Government indicated that “in the fist trimester of 2007, Pemex had a budgetary debt of 7 thousand 836.6 million dollars, this is the debt contracted by the new Pemex director, Reyes Heroles, and what results even more amazing is that this will be used to pay the debt of the so call Pidiregas, which means that debt is contracted to pay debt”.
Although the Pidiregas supposedly was designed like a complementary source of capital for greater investment in the energetic sector, at this time, it had become one of the main forms to incorporate private investment inside the energetic sector (constitutionally this is only reserved to the state), as a final result, we have a greater indebtedness of the state companies, just the same as if they would have contracted it in a direct way, assured Claudia Sheinbaum.
And contributed to the perspective for this year, for exercise 2007, the Pidiregas represents 99.3 percent of the physical investment of Pemex, this was supposedly anticipated as a complementary source. Today, the total amount of the Pidiregas ascends to more than 1.6 billions pesos, which represents 18 percent of the GIB (Gross Internal Product), and even more than the double of the external national debt.
For that reason, Sheinbaum concluded, if the reforms to Pemex fiscal regime were executed , the oil company would have essential resources to capitalize itself and in this way reduce the amount of its debt. The spurious Government knows it, but still maintains a fiscal regime that hurts Pemex —in counterpart— to avoid collection of taxes to the great industrials who supported the campaign of Calderon and to force the privatization of a sector that by law is reserved strictly by law to the State.
Complementing what was said by Sheinbaum Pardo, Mario Di Costanzo recalled the information about the fiscal load imposed to Pemex.
During the first trimester of year 2007, the effective fiscal load of Pemex was 56 percent of its total sales, this means that from the 235 thousand millions pesos that Pemex registered of total sales, 134 thousand millions went directly to the State treasury, if we add Pemex own income of this period, that were also given to the Federal State Treasury and ascended to 86 thousand millions pesos, the effective load (charge) that Pemex had to pay during the first trimester was of more than 85 percent.
Di Costanzo also emphasized that the Pidiregas design has been perverted, it is necessary to remember that originally the Pidiregas were designed so that this energetic infrastructure projects could work with private capital, he declared.
In a didactic way the functionary explained his thesis about the distortion of the financing mechanism through out the Pidiregas.
Since we have seen through out the time, what happened is that the design was imprecise due to negligence and corruption, many who won bids, did not counted with enough capital to carry out the projects and look for financing inside the International market, it is obvious, that a private industrialist is going to reach an elevated interest rate in comparison with the one a government would obtained when asking for a financing. With the intention of diminishing this rate, the Federal Government happened to invent the Trust Master, mechanism in which the Federal Government guarantees and values the debt in which the privates industrialists incur to carry out the Pidiregas design, this is a mayor problem for public finances.
The debt guaranteed by the Federal Government according to these schemes,-continued-
ascends to 554 thousand millions pesos at this point, and the financial cost that has been paid is infinitely greater to the one than it had faced the government, as if the government directly had look for a financing. The additional cost of the interest rate is being paid under the design of Pidiregas, it is located between 3 and 4 percentage points, we want to say with this, that the 38 thousand millions pesos of pure interest that will be paid this year under Pidiregas design, almost 4 points are due to the error incurred in the Pidiregas when allowing private investors with no capital be the ones to win the bids.
With the previous arguments, Di Costanzo and Sheinbaum concluded that there is no company in the whole world that can be competitive with the fiscal load and with this debt and reiterated that Legitimate Government of Lopez Obrador fiscal reform, is the exit that would allow the Mexican State to inject resources to Pemex in a direct way.
If we reduced Pemex fiscal load and if during this trimester , like any company payments had been paid, the oil company had had utilities for at least 60 thousand millions pesos, with this amount, in just a single trimester, we could had constructed a refinery .
For that reason, from the Legitimate Government we make a call to Pemex workers, so that they defend this patrimony of all Mexicans, and do not permit to continue privatization.
The Legitimate Government denounces this situation, and demands to be return the fiscal resource that belong to Pemex, and establishes the necessity of a just and progressive fiscal reform, concluded the functionaries of Lopez Obrador cabinet.
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