April 30, 2022

10:04

Yusseff Abrahim – From Cenarium Magazine

BRASILIA – The Amazonian that slept worried about the effects of the presidential decree 11.052/2022, which zeroed the IPI for processes of non-alcoholic beverages and took away the competitiveness of the Manaus Free Trade Zone Concentrates Pole (ZFM), woke up with another publication that affects the production of two-wheelers, electronics and information technology of the Manaus Industrial Pole: the decree No. 11.055/2022 extended the reduction of the IPI rate to 35% throughout the country, causing competitive disadvantage for what is produced in the Amazon.

“We are talking, in all, about more than 87,000 jobs that may end within 12 months, and this is a very big evil,” said federal lawmaker Marcelo Ramos (PSD/AM).

The congressman pointed out that although the two-wheel hub has been preserved with a 25% tax rate, competing products assembled outside the state of Amazonas, such as mopeds and electric motorcycles, have gained advantage with the reduction to 35%.

“The impression one has is that the federal government deliberately wants to put an end to the Free Trade Zone and take the jobs and the wealth generated by these activities, in Amazonas, to São Paulo or outside the country.

Ramos considers that the moment is for political and judicial reaction against the series of President Bolsonaro’s attacks that affect the economy of the State of Amazonas, and informed that, at the request of the Amazonas bench, the Solidarity party filed, today, with a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI), with the Supreme Court (STF), against the two presidential decrees.

New legislative decree

In another parliamentary reaction, Deputy José Ricardo (PT/AM) filed another Legislative Decree Project (PDL) for the suspension of the presidential decree, which he considered an attack on jobs and the economy of Amazonas.

“We will work to exclude all products from the MFTz from being affected with this new IPI reduction. The damage continues, because the IPI reduction makes all other segments produced in the Free Trade Zone even more unviable. The president is an enemy of the Amazon.

The representative from the Workers Party (PT) highlights that the mobilization of the society and the union between workers and businessmen is fundamental for the defense of the Free Trade Zone model, whose incentives are foreseen in the Federal Constitution. This Monday, 2, he meets in Manaus with centrals and unions of the affected workers.

“Our fight is to keep the companies, the jobs and the financial resources that guarantee, among other things, the UEA (Amazonas State University) and the economic development of Amazonas”, concluded the congressman.

Decree does not stimulate the economy

Senator Omar Aziz recalled that two weeks ago, President Jair Bolsonaro had already signed a decree that reduced IPI rates by 25% under the justification that the tax waiver would aim to stimulate the Brazilian economy.

“The decree ends with an entire pole of the Manaus Free Trade Zone and the president knows the importance of this segment for Amazonas, because it is a sector that generates jobs in Maués, in Presidente Figueiredo and in many other municipalities that produce açaí. The president is aware of what he is doing, but for what? The concentrates do not influence the inflation at all”.