New railway law creates an impasse and will be defined vote by vote

The government and the private sector assess that the most recent text of the new legal framework for railways poses difficulties for investors and jeopardizes many of the 14 railway projects presented to the Ministry of Infrastructure in recent weeks. These projects add up to R$ 80 billion in promises of contributions towards the expansion of the current network by 5,360 kilometers of tracks, crossing 12 states.

The projects were filed after the publication of a provisional measure (MP 1065) at the end of August, allowing new railroads to be built under the authorization regime – with more flexible rules and without the need to go through the exhaustive bid procedure.

Despite unlocking investments, the government’s initiative had a strong negative repercussion in the Senate, which had been discussing a proposal with the same purpose since 2018 and felt “cut off” by the Planalto Palace. The last few weeks were dedicated to attempting to unite the PLS 261, Senator Jean-Paul Prates (PT-RN); and the MP 1065.  It didn’t work.

One of the main impasses is the inclusion by the PLS 261 rapporteur of the “capacity reservation by open tender” of the new railway contracts by authorization or concession.

Source: Valor Econômico

To read the full original article, visit the link:

https://valor.globo.com/brasil/noticia/2021/10/05/nova-lei-de-ferrovias-gera-impasse-e-sera-definida-voto-a-voto.ghtml

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