YOU ARE AT:AmericasBrazil approves plan to reduce taxes and focus on increased Internet access

Brazil approves plan to reduce taxes and focus on increased Internet access

The Brazilian federal government announced Tuesday a package of measures designed to reduce several taxes, including taxes in the information, communcations and telecommunications (ICT) sector. It is called Brazil Maior. In total, the government will give up to R$ 20.7 billion (US $13.2 billion) in order to encourage private-sector investment. President Dilma Roussef said that she wants national production to be more competitive than imported goods.Dilma also highlighted that the plan announced aims to increase the number of residents with Internet access from 13.8 million to 40 million. The government will raise investments from 18.4% of gross national product (GNP) to 22.4% and increase spending on research and development from 0.59% of GNP to 0.90%.Besides these measures, the government may present by the end of this year proposals that focus on broadband, semiconductors and Digital TV.

In a recent interview with RCR Wireless News, MiniCom Executive Secretary Cezar Alvarez said the National Broadband Plan (PNBL) should be good for industry because it includes fiscal incentives, tax breaks for equipment and services, and could launch and expand capacity, quality and capillarity of private and public networks to meet broadband demand. “I believe there will be a boom in infrastructure area, an increase in competition and at the same time prices will get lower. There will be many more networks,” he said.All approved measures can be found here(in Portuguese).

>>> Follow RCR Wireless Americas on Twitter: @RCRAmericas

ABOUT AUTHOR

Roberta Prescott
Roberta Prescott
Editor, [email protected] Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.