Panel SA: Industry wants to ask for the extinction of IPI if it gets a 50% cut

The 50% cut in the IPI (Tax on Industrialized Products), which Coalizão Indústria has been negotiating with Paulo Guedes, is just a first step. The idea, in the end, is to end the tax, says Marco Polo de Mello Lopes, president of the Instituto Aço Brasil and spokesperson for the group that brings together business representatives from more than ten sectors.

“We understand that the reduction of the IPI has to be definitive. If it is not possible to extinguish it immediately, make a reduction of what is possible. The objective is to move towards the reduction of the other 50%”, he says.

According to Lopes, the Minister of Economy is in favor of the cut and already predicted the measure in the tax reform, which did not go ahead.

The subject is one of the priorities of the group’s discussion list with Guedes and will be put on the table again at the meeting scheduled for this Friday (11). The movement takes place in parallel with the discussion of the Fuels PEC.

“We are studying a way to improve the competitiveness of the industry. If the government withdraws the IPI, it will have a direct positive impact on the economy, reducing prices and improving the competitiveness of the system”, says Lopes.

Entities that make up the group and have factories in the Manaus Free Trade Zone, such as Eletros (electronics industry), however, express concern about the risk of losing the region’s comparative advantages.

According to Lopes, the idea is that these sectors negotiate with the government a way to recover the competitiveness factor. “You can’t stop the discussion of this all over Brazil because of the Manaus Free Trade Zone. They are already working on it”, he says.

Joana Wedge with Andressa Motter and Ana Paula Branco