Brazil’s ICT minister claims tax breaks will promote country’s developmentRCR Wireless News Americas

Categories: Industry, Policy

Brazil’s ICT minister claims tax breaks will promote country’s development

Posted on 05 October 2012 by Roberta Prescott. Tags: Brasscom, Brazil, Minicom, PNBL, Policy, Tax

Brazil’s Communication minister Paulo Bernardo has claimed the most efficient way to promote country’s development is reducing taxes by imposing counterparts to the private sector. “We need to tax relief and stimulate companies in Brazil,” he noted during the Brasscom Global IT Forum, held with The Economist’s Ideas Economy Brazil’s event.

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Bernardo listed several examples from the recently released law 12715 (which resulted from the interim measure 563), that created a series of tax incentives, especially for the telecommunications industry, such as tax relief for the deployment of new networks. The new law also extended the exemption to various payroll sectors such as software and semiconductors. It also includes benefits for the auto market.

During his speech, Bernardo noted that the government aims to deploy a second phase of the national broadband plan (PNBL) to promote the expansion of Internet access. “By 2014, we will have 70% of household with Internet connections, but we are considering a PNBL 2.0 for 2013,” he said.

According to Bernardo, the government has just started to work in the development of the plan. “The universalization of Internet access will be driven by 3G and LTE,” he said.

Brazil’s mission has been to promote the acceleration of new technologies and media access, Bernardo noted. But as technology usage has spread, investments did not follow and the systems have become congested. He cited as an example Anatel’s ban of three carriers from selling new lines of service.