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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).
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