A ANP (National Petroleum Agency) studies historical changes in the rules for selling cooking gas. Among the changes under discussion are the permission for partial refilling of cylinders and authorization for a company to fill containers from other brands. Both practices are currently prohibited.
Cooking gas is present in around 90% of Brazilian homes, which makes the topic of great social relevance. David Zylbersztajn, columnist for CNN Infraavaliou as .
The proposal is not new and has already been widely debated
Zylbersztajn highlighted that a .
“20 years ago or more, this issue of LPG, bottled gas, was already one of the biggest challenges,” he stated. He explained that the 13-kilo cylinder, the most common in Brazilian homes, is the focus of the proposed changes, and that there are more than 100 million cylinders spread across the country.
For the expert, gas fractionation — that is, the sale of partial quantities of cylinders — does not make sense from an economic point of view.
“It doesn’t make sense to buy fractionated gas. It would be much better to have service programs, especially for the less economically favored classes, so that the person always receives a full cylinder”, argued Zylbersztajn.
Security and logistics risks
In addition to the economic issue, Zylbersztajn highlighted significant concerns related to security and logistics. According to him, LPG is kept under high pressure and requires careful technical handling.
The identification of the manufacturer on the cylinder, a current practice, offers a layer of security to the consumer that could be compromised with changes. “Today the cylinders come with the brand of the bottling company. This gives you more security in terms of who is supplying you and, mainly, the quality of the cylinder”, he explained.
The expert also warned of the increase in logistical movement that fractionation would require. A person who uses one cylinder a month would have to make more frequent changes, requiring a filling infrastructure that, according to him, simply does not exist at the moment. “You would have to build a new structure”, he pointed out.
Crime in the sector is a concern
One of the most critical points raised by Zylbersztajn concerns .
He stated that militias already use the sector as a form of coercion, forcing consumers to buy gas from specific suppliers. In his opinion, expanding the sector’s capillarity through fractionation would worsen this problem. “I think this model will greatly favor the expansion of crime,” he declared.
Zylbersztajn concluded that, based on his experience and previous analysis, he does not identify who would effectively benefit from the changes.
“The consumer will not benefit in the end, because they will have less security in relation to the cylinder”, he stated. For him, it would be more effective to combat crime in the sector as it exists today and strengthen social income transfer programs aimed at access to gas.
