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Document of The World Bank FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Report No. P-6907-BR MEMORANDUMAND RECOMMENDATION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT TO THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ON A PROPOSED LOAN IN AN AMOUNT EQUIVALENT TO US$350 MILLION TO THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL FOR A FEDERAL RAILWAYS RESTRUCTURING AND PRIVATIZATION PROJECT May 29, 1996 This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of their official duties. its contents may not otherwise be disclosed without World Bank authorization. CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS (as of May 14, 1996) Currency Unit = Real (R$) US$1 = R$0.995 WEIGHTS AND MEASURES Metric System FISCAL YEAR January 1 - December 31 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS BNDES - Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social National Bank for Economic and Social Development COFER - Commissao Federal de Transportes Ferroviarios Federal Rail Transport Commission CVRD - Companhia Vale do Rio Doce Vale do Rio Doce Company DTF - Departamento de Transportes Ferroviarios Rail Transport Department of the Ministry of Transport FEPASA - Ferrovia Paulista S.A. Sao Paulo State Railway ICB - International Competitive Bidding ICR - Implementation Completion Report IERR - Internal Economic Rate of Return MT - Ministerio dos Transportes Ministry of Transport NCB - National Competitive Bidding NPV - Net Present Value PIP - Project Implementation Plan PMU - Project Management Unit RFFSA - Rede Ferroviaria Federal S.A. Federal Railways SRP - Staff Retrenchment Program FOR OFFICIALUSE ONLY BRAZIL FEDERAL RAILWAYS RESTRUCTURING AND PRIVATIZATION PROJECT Loan and Project Summary Borrower: Federative Republic of Brazil Implementing Agency: Rede Ferroviaria Federal S.A. (RFFSA) Beneficiary: Rede Ferroviaria Federal S.A. (RFFSA) Poverty: Not applicable Amount: US$350 million equivalent Terms: Repayment in 15 years, including five years of grace, at the Bank's standard variable interest rate for currency pool loans Commitment Fee: 0.75% on undisbursed loan balances, beginning 60 days after signing, less any waiver Onlending Terms: Not applicable Financing Plan: See para. 13 and Schedule A Net Present Value: R$2.6 billion Staff Appraisal Report: No. 15580-BR Map: IBRD No. 27392 Project Identification Number: BR-PA-40028 This document has a restricted distribution and may be used by recipients only in the performance of their official duties. Its contents may not otherwise be disclosedwiLhout World Bank authorization. MEMORANDUM AND RECOMMENDATION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR RECONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT TO THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ON A PROPOSED LOAN TO THE FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL FOR A FEDERAL RAILWAYS RESTRUCTURING AND PRIVATIZATION PROJECT 1. I submit for your approval the following memorandum and recommendation on a proposed loan to the Federative Republic of Brazil for the equivalent of US$350 million to help finance a project for the restructuring and privatization of the federal railways. The loan would be at the Bank's standard variable interest rate, with a maturity of 15 years, including five years of grace. 2. Country Background. The macroeconomic policy framework in Brazil remains within the parameters outlined in the Base Case of the Country Assistance Strategy. Core inflation remains below its targeted level with a rate of under one percent per month, and actual inflation for 1995, at 15 percent, was the lowest in decades. The balance of payments also remained strong, and gross international reserves have continued to accumulate, reaching $52 billion by December 1995, or 11 months of imports of goods and nonfactor services. This has occurred despite a weakening of the current account deficit to 2.6 percent of GDP, higher than anticipated as a result of more rapid growth in 1995 and an appreciation of the real exchange rate. These positive outcomes for inflation and the balance of payments appear set to continue in the medium term. 3. Fiscal policy, however, weakened in 1995, with the operational balance of the public sector declining from a surplus of 0.5 percent of GDP in 1994 to a deficit of 5 percent in 1995. The primary balance remained in surplus in 1995 (0.4 percent of GDP), but was significantly lower than in 1994 (4.3 percent of GDP). The most important factors behind this deterioration were an increase in wages and a much higher domestic interest bill resulting from tight monetary policy and an accumulation of internal debt by Federal and State governments. While the Government is committed to reducing fiscal deficits over the medium term, it has been hampered by structural rigidities in public sector accounts (revenue earmarking, payroll and pension rigidities and interest consume almost all the budget). The structural reforms required to improve the situation (privatization, pension, administrative and tax reforms) have been progressing slowly through the political system, but should provide the basis for fiscal improvements on both operational and primary balances in 1997 and 1998. The sectoral adjustment supported by the project would contribute positively to this medium-term fiscal improvement. 4. Sector Background. Brazil has the largest railway system in Latin America, with 30,000 km of track and a freight traffic of 120 billion ton-km. Railways play an important role in the country's economy, accounting for over 25% of total freight ton-kmn,particularly long- haul bulk cargo movements in the mineral, petroleum product and export sectors. Inter-city passenger rail transport is insignificant since line geometry does not allow for competitive speeds. Rede Ferroviaria Federal S.A. (RFFSA), which owns and operates 22,000 km of track countrywide and carries about 38 billion ton-km of cargoes in many sectors, is Brazil's main -2- railway. Two other railways, owned by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), mostly carry iron ore from CVRD mines to export terminals. The Sao Paulo State Railway (FEPASA) operates freight and some passenger services essentially within the state of Sao Paulo. 5. RFFSA was created in 1957 under the Federal Government's jurisdiction by consolidating 18 formerly privately-owned and operated railways which, facing competition from trucking and shifts in the location of industry, required increasing Government subsidies. But RFFSA's performance has been poor in both operational and financial terms. Operationally, its 12 regions still function basically as autonomous units. The railways' traffic is predominantly in the export- import corridors. Rail transport is insignificant along the eastern seaboard, where highways are increasingly congested. Inappropriate government regulations and excessive political interference have hampered the railway to adjust to the changing market environment. The railway's poorly designed rate structure has encouraged high-value cargoes to shift to trucks. Government- imposed uniform pricing policies and restrictions on line and service abandonment have led to extensive cross-subsidization, underinvestment in economically viable operations, deferred maintenance and consequent deterioration and low productivity of rolling stock and track, to mediocre quality of service, and to further traffic losses. The availability of RFFSA's locomotives has already fallen to 50 percent as a system-wide average, and as low as 30 percent in some regions, which compares with some of the worst railways of the world. 6(. RFFSA's staff has been reduced from 110,000 to 40,000 over the past twenty years. However, labor productivity remains low compared to North American railways, and even to the recently-concessioned railways in Argentina and Chile. Labor costs still represent 70 percent of RFFSA's revenues. Further staff reductions are therefore critical to the success of the railway reform. But RFFSA's employees, who in general have had little education or have excessively specialized skills, an average 18 years of service in the company, and salaries 10 to 30 percent higher than the corresponding labor market averages, would have difficulties in finding new jobs, and they are likely to be paid less. Brazil's regional labor markets are characterized by the modest qualifications of the labor force and a capacity to generate jobs of poor quality. Unemployment rates are about 5 percent in most regions, except in the Northeast where they reach almost 8 percent. But due to the high turnover, the average duration of unemployment ranges from less than 200 days in the South to almost 400 days in the Northeast. 7. During most of its history, RFFSA has generated substantial annual operating losses, which, exacerbated by the unstable macroeconomic environment, reached the US$300-400 million range in the early 1990s, after insufficient government compensation for public service obligations. RFFSA's debt (almost US$3.0 billion as of December 1995) consists essentially of rapidly increasing short-term liabilities to Government entities such as the social security system (US$1.9 billion including interest and monetary correction), financial institutions (US$400 million), contractors (US$200 million), and the staff pension fund (US$300 million); its long term debt is only about US$200 million. RFFSA's assets total about US$16 billion; the non-operational assets are estimated at about US$1.0 billion in market value, but they cannot be sold in the short term due to past legal decisions on actions by creditors. 8. The Government has decided to restructure and privatize RFFSA's operations in order to stop the