Terrible deal: Temer's privatization scheme will cost Minas Gerais residents R$ 43 billion.

The amount that Minas Gerais has just lost with the privatization of the four power plants (Jaguara, São Simão, Miranda and Volta Grande), concessions of Cemig, by the illegitimate Temer government is no small feat: approximately R$ 43 billion.

The federal government will pocket R$ 12 billion, the price achieved at the auction, but the final cost of the sale, according to Cemig's president, Bernardo Salomão, will be R$ 55 billion.

Bernardo warned that the illegitimate government created a new form of privatization, deeply detrimental to the interests of the people of Minas Gerais: it established a minimum price for the undervalued assets, which will remain in the federal treasury, but the additional costs, much higher, will be charged by the winning companies through tariff increases.

The miners, who had already amortized the investment costs in the power plants, charged monthly in their electricity bills over two decades of the concession, will once again be bled dry. A terrible deal for the people of Minas Gerais.

For the Chinese, French, and Italians, however, the opposite was true. It was also an excellent deal for the bankers, who will receive the money as payment for interest and debt amortization, in order to reduce the public deficit that the government artificially inflated to R$ 159 billion.

In other words, the undervalued assets don't even cover 10% of the value of this arranged tax revenue. Therefore, nothing is left for production, consumption, tax collection, and investment for the people.

On the same day as the privatization of the power plants, the illegitimate government, under the pretext of paying off the public debt, concluded the voting on the Refis (tax amnesty program), foregoing R$ 37 million in revenue.

The privatized power plants, with a total capacity of 2.911 MW, have an estimated energy output, according to the sector's current criteria (physical guarantee), of 2.048 MW on average. In one year, they generate approximately 18 TWh. If this energy is sold at R$ 200/MWh, according to market estimates, buyers will earn R$ 3,6 billion/year. Thus, in just over three years, they will recoup their investment.

In 27 years, a shorter period than the new concession period – three decades – they will accumulate R$ 100 billion, without making any effort and without expanding productive capacity.

The Fernando Pimentel government attempted to secure funds from the BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) on behalf of Minas Gerais to maintain the four power plants responsible for the state's development, but was boycotted. Temer prefers to allocate money from the development bank to be passed on to bankers.

Temer preferred to heed advice from the Federal Audit Court (TCU), according to which Minas Gerais had become a risk and could compromise ongoing agreements with international negotiators. Presentations by technicians from the Ministry of Mines and Energy were made in China and Europe, with the aim of selling the assets at undervalued prices.

Minas Gerais is not a debtor, but rather a creditor of the Federal Government, in the amount of approximately R$ 135 billion, relating to the offsetting of accounts between what it has to pay and what it has to receive, concerning the ICMS tax exemptions determined by the imperialist Kandir Law, on exports of primary products.

Furthermore, the compensation to Cemig of approximately R$ 7 billion was not taken into account, since the company's balance sheets prove that the power plants, according to updated monetary indexes, would be worth R$ 18 billion and not R$ 11 billion, as initially estimated in the auctions.

Given this, the judge of the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF-1), Souza Prudente, decided to suspend the auction of the four power plants, precisely because he considered the assets undervalued by the neoliberal federal government itself.

In this way, he said, "the possible transfer of the concession grant for the hydroelectric plants is avoided, even before a judicial ruling on the alleged damage to public assets, which would reach the substantial amount of R$ 7 billion, resulting from the supposedly flawed methodology for assessing compensation, which disregards the unamortized investments made by the concessionaire."

The Minas Gerais state constitutional charter, in its amendment No. 50/2001, should be complied with before initiating any discussion about the privatization of this valuable asset, Cemig, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with shareholders spread across 45 countries, in addition to subsidiaries that extend throughout the country, and also holding a significant stake in Light, in Rio de Janeiro.

The President and his group of coup plotters, who advise him, disregarded the constitutional autonomy of Minas Gerais through a mere decree, number 133/2017, which authorizes the Ministry of Mines and Energy to auction off the four hydroelectric plants in the Triângulo Mineiro region.

The President, therefore, disobeyed federal law no. 13.360/2016, which he himself signed, guaranteeing that auctions can only be held with the authorization of Cemig.

Contested by over 90% of the Brazilian population, Temer, the mastermind behind the privatization spree, has no legitimacy whatsoever to sell the largest hydroelectric company in Minas Gerais. 60% of the population in the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Region condemned the privatization, according to a survey conducted by the Multidados Institute.

Cemig vehemently contests the auction, arguing that it violates a contract signed in 1997 between it and the federal government. A contractual clause, agreed upon by both parties, stipulates automatic renewal of the concession for twenty years if the state-owned company expresses interest. None of this was respected.

Without a doubt, the Anastasia government worked against Minas Gerais by not accepting the regulatory framework negotiated with other states of the Federation, except for those governed by the PSDB party (Minas Gerais, São Paulo, and Paraná), for the renewal of the concession in exchange for reduced tariffs, in order to benefit consumers. Temer is following in the footsteps of FHC, who tried to give away Minas Gerais' assets at rock-bottom prices, unfortunately, with more success.

During Eduardo Azeredo's administration, there were attempts to hand over control of the company to the American companies Southern Electric, from Georgia, and AES, from Virginia.

A parliamentary commission of inquiry created in the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais uncovered a shady deal involving millions of dollars, with the participation of members of the PSDB party, Southern Airlines, AES, Banco Opportunity, and Cayman Energy International, based in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven in the Caribbean.

The coup against the miners was halted in 1998 with Itamar Franco's electoral victory. In 2012, the privatization maneuver was attempted again.

Former President Dilma Rousseff instituted a new regulatory framework for the electricity sector in 2012, but former Governor Anastasia betrayed the people of Minas Gerais and paved the way for a third privatization attempt, now finally carried out against the interests of Minas Gerais.

That was the purpose of the coup against her, legitimately elected by 54 million votes: to give away national assets, including those of Minas Gerais, to international vultures to pay interest to loan sharks, to the detriment of national development.