Brazil energy price controls likely

BRASILIA - Government price controls may be reimposed on gasoline and electricity, Brazil's incoming energy minister says.   Dilma Roussef, President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's nominee to be mines and energy minister, did not detail how a new pricing policy could look like. But he said the controls were under  consideration.

"To define pricing policies, to define Brazil's petroleum and electric energy policy ... that is the role of the ministry, it's the role of the state," Roussef told television reporters.

Before 2002, the government fixed gasoline and cooking gas prices every couple of months through a complicated pricing system that ran large deficits. The government used the controls to put off necessary fuel price increases and avoid rising inflation.

Brazil's oil and gas sector was opened to full competition in January when previous price regulation was abolished. However, deregulation was criticised after several fuel price increases by state oil firm Petrobras have accelerated the country’s inflation rate.

Electricity price increases so far are granted to energy companies by Brazil's energy regulator without the approval by the ministry of mines and energy, a method Roussef criticized as well.

On Sunday, Petrobras raised the cost of gasoline at the pumps nearly 10% and the price of cooking gas for consumers nearly  5%.

Sapa-AP