No Chance’ Brazil’s Government Can Waive Oi Debt, Minister Says

Brazil’s government can’t waive Oi SA’s debt with a local regulator and state-run banks, the communications minister said, denying the phone carrier a lifeline that would have helped it pull out of the biggest bankruptcy in the country’s history. “The govt can’t let go of resources, they are public resources, debt with the public administration,” Science and Technology Minister Gilberto Kassab, who also oversees communications, said Sunday in an interview in Barcelona, Spain.