White line speeds up and asks for IPI extension
DCI
The manufacturers of refrigerators, stoves, washing machines - products also known as white line - are working at full steam in order to meet the demand that increased 20% on the average in the base of comparison between the month of May last year and May 2009. A company which sped up the rhythm of production was Whirlpool, which manufactures the Brastemp and Consul brands. It had to hire 400 temporary workers during a period of three months. At Mabe, which besides its own brand produces equipment for GE and Dako, the level of activity returned to the level it had in the same period before the crisis.
According to the president of the National Association of Manufacturers of Electric and Electronic Products (Electros), Lourival Kiçula, the measure of incentive of the government was directly responsible for the excellent performance, reminding that the base of comparison of the two-digit increase was made between months in which the crisis had not yet shaken the world economy.
Exactly because of such reaction of the consumption is that Electros and its members are meeting this week to debate the strategy to convince the government to extend the reduction of the IPI (Excise Tax) for the white line, as it did to automobiles, in March. Among the arguments to be presented are figures like the level of industrial activity, which went back to the levels prior to the crisis with 70% of use of the installed capacity, the low value of the tax waiver, estimated at R$ 170 million (US$ 85 million) in three months, besides, of course the increase of production. For Kiçula, the ideal is that such measure were renewed for another 90 days when the sector would be able to go on by itself, because the new period would end at the beginning of the orders for the Christmas season.