What they are sharing: that Correios had a record profit of R$3.7 billion during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and a “gigantic loss” of R$597 million in the first year of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration.
Estadão Verifica checked and concluded that: it lacks context. In the last year of Bolsonaro’s government, the Brazilian Post and Telegraph Company (ECT) had a negative result of R$768 million. Under Lula, the Correios accounting report showed a loss of R$597 million last year, a difference of R$170 million. The state-owned company had positive results from 2017 to 2021, with an increase in demand during the pandemic period.
Know more: The post compares Correios’ financial results between the previous management and the current PT government based on two true news stories. Although the post highlights that there was a “record profit” during the former president’s term and attributes a “gigantic loss” to Lula’s management, an important context is omitted: in 2022, ECT recorded a loss of R$768 millions.
During the Bolsonaro government, Correios made profits for three consecutive years, according to the company’s financial statements. In 2019, the net result was R$102 million, followed by an increase to R$1.53 billion in 2020, and reaching a historic record of R$2.3 billion in 2021. However, in the last year of the former president, in 2022, there was a loss of R$768 million.
The data on the record of R$3.7 billion in 2022, cited in the publication, refers only to Correios’ recurring profit. In other words, a number that only shows the company’s operational performance, when non-recurring or extraordinary expenses are disregarded. The net profit of R$2.3 billion that year includes all expenses, interest and income, regardless of their nature or frequency.
Post office losses were 22% lower in 2023
On May 28, the state-owned company announced that Correios had a negative balance of R$597 million last year. The result showed an improvement in the state-owned company’s accounts with a gain of 22%, or R$170 million, compared to 2022.
In the statement, the Brazilian company credits the difficulty of reducing losses to the privatization process initiated by Bolsonaro and the arrival of the Conform Remittance Program, which deals with the taxation of purchases made by consumers on websites outside the country. According to the survey, there was a drop of R$530 million in import revenue.
In April 2023, President Lula removed Correios and six other state-owned companies from the National Privatization Program, in addition to excluding three from the Investment Partnership Program (PPI). The inclusions had been made by the Bolsonaro government. The bill that allowed the privatization of ECT has stalled in the Senate since 2021, even after approval in the Chamber of Deputies.
How to deal with posts like this: In this case, despite sharing true headlines, the publication does not provide users with complete information to understand the reports. We could check them by looking for reports on the internet or consulting the history of Correios’ profits in other press vehicles and on the state-owned company’s website.
