Details on the million-reais default that power distributors controlled by Eletrobras group have been facing every year give a good idea of the financial trouble of these state-run companies. Through the Access to Information Act, Valor obtained the delinquency profile of Eletrobras’s six distributors, which operate in Acre, Alagoas, Amazonas, Piauí, Rondônia and Roraima states. The federal government itself does not give a good example.

Consumer delinquency rates indicate that, in 2013, federal agencies failed to pay more than R$13.5 million in power bills. Considering debts of state governments where these distributors operate, the amount reached R$38.4 million last year. The situation is even worse for payments by municipalities, where the shortfall totaled R$53.8 million. This means that, considering the government default by its three spheres alone, distributors’ losses surpassed R$105 million in 2013. It is worth noting that these calculations still do not include costs of public lighting.

Albeit slowly, Eletrobras has reduced its clients’ indebtedness. Last year, default rates of all its customers — including residential, commercial and industrial users, among others — was R$896.2 million, down from the R$1.2 billion loss in 2012.

On Friday, when Eletrobras announced its 2013 earnings results, its CEO José da Costa said that, despite the difficult financial situation of its distributors, which also have huge debts to be settled, the state-run company would not sell any unit.

The fate of distributors, Mr. Costa said, is expected to be decided by the year’s end, with the possibility of Eletrobras keeping 100% of these units, making room for a minority shareholder or reducing its stake in the companies. Last year, Eletrobras’s distribution operations showed a R$2.3 billion loss. The remaining loss of R$4 billion in 2013 is related to generation and power transmission projects.

The delay of Eletrobras in settling distributors’ debts, Mr. Costa said, also depends on the government, on how concession contracts of these companies will be renewed, since they all expire in 2015. So far, the government has already renewed generation and power transmission contracts. Distribution is the last step that remains open. "We need to know what the rules are," Mr. Costa said.

Still in the first half, Eletrobras will submit an extra bill of R$12 billion to the country’s electricity regulator Aneel on extra compensations linked to investments in generation and transmission made by the state-owned group. So far, the company has received R$14 billion in compensations.

Despite the total loss of R$6.2 billion last year, Mr. Costa insisted that the result was influenced by "non-recurring" events, referring to the financial bleeding caused by the proposed renewal of concessions that was imposed by the government in late 2012, in addition to the company's voluntary buyout program. In 2014, he assured, Eletrobras will return to profit.