The oil and gas sectors are the ones who use special tax regimes (Marcelo Sayao / EFE / SEE)
Subsidies, "national champions", special tax regimes: in recent years, the government abused these tools of intervention in the economy. Used with the stated aim of promoting the activity of certain sectors, they often cause the opposite effect, creating serious distortions and imbalances. The Brazilian Association of Machinery and Equipment (Abimaq) had to resort to the Access to Information Act to obtain the data on special regimes used to import this type of product. The new survey, which the SEE site had access, shows that between 2011 and 2015, the government gave up at least 150 billion reais to import the recipients equipment with the benefit - without necessarily would have to bring machines were since in many cases it was possible to find similar in Brazil.
Imports made using special tax regimes totaled 410.1 billion reais between 2011 and 2013. With the benefit, tax breaks was 83.1 billion reais in the period. The data obtained through the Access to Information Act relate to these three years. Based on the records of imports made by the country, Abimaq estimates that the tax waiver was 33.9 billion in 2014 and reach 44.2 billion reais in 2015 - the calculation takes into account the average exchange rate for the year 3.06 real. On Friday, the dollar closed trading at 3.94 reais.
In the survey, 49 different special tax regimes have been identified. Most of them are for machinery and equipment used by the oil and gas sector. Added benefits, the government gave up to raise between 2011 and 2015 more than double the bill that all companies affiliated to Abimaq - the annual turnover plus the sector is 70 billion reais.
In theory, the special schemes supply the Brazilian industry with equipment and supplies that are not found in the domestic market. So the government gives up to raise the import to, at the other end, stimulate industrial activity. But there is controversy about the criteria used to decide who you are entitled to tax exemption. According to Abimaq, 70% of imports made within the special regimes for oil and gas - which, in turn, account for two-thirds of everything that is imported using the benefit - have national equivalents.
"The government is giving up a recipe that would not open," says Carlos Pastoriza, president of Abimaq.This finding does not cease to be ironic. After all, in times of fiscal adjustment, the government counts the pennies to cover the hole billionaire's budget for 2016. The package of measures presented by the government - which includes the administrative reform announced on Friday and the controversial proposal for resurrection of the CPMF which is in Congress - provides for a total of 66.2 billion reais, from cost cuts and increased revenue. "This recipe already exists. Just to give equal conditions of competition among suppliers," said the manager.
Revenue and garrote - The distortion caused by special regimes of taxation adopted with questionable criteria is not restricted to loss of revenue. It is also an important bottleneck of the private enterprise. In 2013, the machinery sector, one of the most diversified and sprayed the domestic industry - are about 7000 companies with revenues ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of millions of real - employed 380,000 people. Today there are 330,000. They were lost 50,000 jobs - jobs that require well-trained people with good education - in a span of just two years.
This is not to advocate for protectionist measures to protect domestic firms from foreign suppliers, but the balance of power. "They are killing an entire sector because of tax rates that together amount to 6%," says Pastoriza. Even voices that normally would disagree these arguments seem in this case to the choir. On Monday, the Perseus Abramo Foundation, linked to the PT, released critical text of the government's economic policy. The exemptions deserved special mention - not by their mere existence, but an apparent lack of strategy and the poor results in its adoption, according to an analysis of the entity. At this point - who knew - industrial and agree Foundation.
The survey of special tax regimes was presented briefly to the Secretary of Revenue, Jorge Rachid, in Brasilia, and also the finance minister, Joaquim Levy, in a meeting held in the office of the Ministry in São Paulo on September 18. Levy seemed interested and said he would return to the spreadsheet accompanied by his staff, according Pastoriza. If the government is counting pennies, imagine being able to count on billion.
