Package to reduce tax for civil construction
DCI - 01/19/2009
The measures the Federal Government is preparing for the housing sector will reach from the entrepreneur to the consumer. Middle class should be benefited by a reduction in the interest rate and by more credit available in the market; the low income population shall assure houses through subsidy policies, and entrepreneurs are certain there will be tax release for the chain of civil construction material. It is still unknown what the level of reduction the Executive will be capable of producing, but the sector made a proposal to zero the rate for the Excise Tax (IPI, in Portuguese) during a period of two years. In the backstage, there are speculations that a reduction in the IPI similar to that occurred in the car sector may be announced. In a year of crisis and near the elections of 2010, the Executive does not want to make mistakes. According to sources heard by DCI, the Government works with the date of February 4 to announce the Housing Plan, taking advantage of the presentation of the report of the Growth Acceleration Program (PAC, in Portuguese). There are those who bet on the 28th of this month because of the urgency. The program should bring credit expansion, flexibility to the use of the Employment Security Fund (FGTS, in Portuguese), cut in the interest rate, reduction of the bureaucracy and tax release - a measure considered vital in view of the demand generated by the PAC around the building materials. Housing and civil construction, however, are not the only sectors to which the government launches support measures. The car industry, benefited in 2008, will have news, as well as there will be news for agriculture. The Ministry of Development should include agriculture in the green-yellow drawback, which assures exemption of the tax collection in the import of inputs used in the manufacturing of products to be exported.