Eletrozema, a company owned by the presidential candidate (Novo) and his family members, received tax benefits from the Government of Minas Gerais during his tenure as head of the state.
Data released by the state administration on companies benefiting from special taxation regimes show that Eletrozema received R$2.28 million in 2025.
Information from the Federal Revenue indicates that Eletrozema, with share capital of R$536 million, has Romero Zema, brother of the former governor, as president. Ricardo Zema Neto, Romero’s son and nephew of the presidential candidate, appears as director.
In a note, the former governor stated that the company in which he is a partner has had a special taxation regime since 2008, before he entered politics. He also defended the exemptions as a way of attracting large companies to the state and said that, in his government, the benefits were available to all companies that wanted to invest in Minas.
“All special regimes in Minas were created in governments prior to mine and have the approval of a collegiate formed by all state finance departments, Confaz. The renewal of this regime is periodic and depends on compliance with certain criteria”, stated Zema.
The spreadsheet released by the state government says that Eletrozema has had tax relief since June 2024, still during Zema’s term.
When asked whether the date referred to the granting of the first benefit to the company or a renewal, the state management stated that it was a “continuity of tax treatment provided for in the legislation applicable to the respective economic segment, observing the relevant legal and regulatory requirements”.
While he was in office, he benefited from tax exemptions granted by his government and compared the secrecy of the exemptions to an industrial secret.
“We are not going to publicize this because it would be extremely pernicious for the state of Minas. But I can assure you that, under my administration, we did not create any type of tax incentive. What we did was continue what already existed previously. So, it is as if you gave competitors the form of your product, and we will not,” he stated in March.
The list of beneficiaries was released this week by governor Mateus Simões (PSD), who took office after Zema’s resignation to run for President and about the resignations.
Simões must run for re-election with the support of the former governor.
Special taxation regimes are a waiver of state revenue to benefit a company or sector. They are granted by the State Department of Finance upon request from interested parties.
The government only disclosed the beneficiaries of the special regimes in force in 2025. In this modality, the tax waiver reached R$19.4 billion. In total, the State planned to grant R$22.7 billion in tax benefits in the year.
This account also includes exemptions from other taxes, such as IPVA, which were not included in the disclosure.
