March 1, 2022

07:03

Marcela Leiros – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The former mayor of Manaus and former senator Arthur Virgílio Neto celebrated, on Monday, 28, the 55th anniversary of the creation of the Manaus Free Trade Zone (MFTZ), also remembering that the economic model faces “another tough battle to maintain the continuity of the Industrial Complex”. On Friday, 25, the federal government issued a decree reducing the Tax on Industrialized Products (IPI), a measure that put the ZFM under threat.

“The Manaus Free Trade Zone is 55 years old and there have been many struggles to get here, generating jobs in Amazonas and keeping the forest standing. On this date, which would be a celebration, we face another tough battle to maintain the continuity of the Industrial Complex. It’s sad to see our representatives in the National Congress surrendering to interests other than defending our people and our land”, alleged the former mayor.

Virgílio Neto also remembered that during his political career he always emphasized the importance of the model for the state and for the Amazon.

“The Free Trade Zone is the mainstay of the Amazon Rainforest. It distributes jobs and benefits all over the country. It needs to be supported. To discuss incentives, if it cuts incentives, if it doesn’t cut incentives, this is extremely silly, because it is part of the Constitution until at least 2073. So disobeying this, cutting incentives, is as impossible as allowing anyone to disobey any other article of the Constitution,” defended the former congressman in an old video rescued on this date.

Watch the video:

IPI Reduction

The federal government published on Friday, 25, in the Official Journal of the Union (DOU), the decree that allows the reduction of up to 25% in IPI rates. The act was signed by the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro (PL), and by the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes. The reduction directly affects imported products and those produced in the Industrial Complex.

The IPI reduction had already been announced by Minister Paulo Guedes last Tuesday, 22. According to him, this would be a measure to curb widespread price increases and boost the growth of industry. But parliamentarians and industry representatives say that the decree is an atomic bomb against the Free Trade Zone.

The goal of the measure is to stimulate the economy, but it will require a tax waiver, i.e., the government will not collect, according to the Planalto Palace, R$ 19.5 billion this year alone.

The IPI is levied on industrialized products, and the value is usually passed on to the consumer in the final price of the goods. The tax has several rates, which range, for the most part, from zero to 30%, but can reach 300% in the case of products harmful to health.