-- Olivia Thetgyi
Some Brazilian states and municipalities are currently considering securitizations of future tax revenues. The securitization would give them access to an alternative source of funding, said Jean-Pierre Cote Gil, associate director at Standard & Poor’s in Sao Paulo.
Currently, Brazil’s Fiscal Responsibility Law limits the amount of debt a governor may assume under his administration, Cote Gil explained. Securitization would help local government get around the restriction and help municipalities with weak credit quality achieve cheaper funding.
Government officials and banks have to overcome a number of hurdles to make the securitization possible. For one thing, regulations covering what governments can do to recover taxes are different from other types of debt servicing, Cote Gil said. “The performance of these transactions would depend on the structure proposed, specifically how they would isolate or mitigate the government-specific potential interference risk,” he said. In addition, structurers would have to come up with a way to prevent them from being affected by the potential future tax renegotiations permitted under Brazilian tax law. “Investors and arrangers would have to come up with a structure that guaranteed the true sale of the flows.”