Privatization of the Brazilian postal sector: favorable and contrary arguments

Abstract

The state Brazilian Post and Telegraph Company (ECT), present in all cities in the country, goes through difficulties due to deficits, inefficiency in the provision of services and corruption scandals. Because of that, it has been considered and discussed the possibility of privatize this company. Therefore, this study aims, based on a systematic bibliographic review, to organize the arguments for and against the privatization of Brazilian postal services, using content analysis. Of the 11 (eleven) articles that responded satisfactorily to the research problem, the following arguments were favorable for privatization: the decrease in postal traffic, the financial deficit, the promotion of competition with opening to the international market with improvements in products and services, constant strikes and positive examples of other privatizations. The authors who oppose the privatization of the Post Office present the following arguments: the postal monopoly subsidizes the cost of the service in unprofitable areas, the company is profitable, the ECT allows the control of national security operations, there will be a reduction in posts work, the monopoly is ensured by constitutional legal norms, privatization does not reduce the public deficit, there is cultural and historical relevance in maintaining the monopoly and there were experiences from other countries in which it was possible to notice that no country with dimensions similar to those of Brazil chose by totally privatizing their postal services, only small countries have done so. After analyzing the categories, it was concluded that privatization is not the best option for the postal sector, but opening the ECT to the stock market is an option to consider, because it could improve its processes and leverage its results while maintaining universal access to the logistics services offered by the Post Office, especially for the most deprived areas.