My Home, My Life program will have 350 more units.

Wellton Máximo, from Agência Brasil - The "Minha Casa, Minha Vida" (My House, My Life) program is expected to contract 350 more housing units in the first half of 2015. The expansion of the program was recently announced by the Minister of Finance, Guido Mantega, the Minister of Planning, Miriam Belchior, and the president of the Brazilian Chamber of the Construction Industry (CBIC), José Carlos Martins.

According to Mantega, the most important measure is maintaining the rules of the second phase of the Minha Casa, Minha Vida program, which ends at the end of the year, for the third phase of the program, which begins in 2015 and runs until 2018. According to the minister, maintaining the rules will ensure that the contracting of financing is not interrupted from one year to the next.

"Companies need to prepare, buy land and develop projects. We will maintain most of the rules in place, so that there are no difficulties and we can save time, contracting 350 units in the first half of 2015," declared Mantega.

According to the president of CBIC, the continuation of the housing program will prevent the dismissal of at least 500 workers directly involved in the construction of the Minha Casa, Minha Vida program. "Companies can go to Caixa [Econômica Federal] and request project analysis this year so that financing can be granted starting in January," he explained. Martins recalled that, from the first to the second phase of the program, the granting of financing was paralyzed for ten months.

In addition to maintaining the rules of the Minha Casa, Minha Vida program, the government announced the extension, for another four years, of the special tax regime for projects under the program. Properties valued up to R$ 100 pay 1% of their revenue to cover four taxes: Social Integration Program (PIS), Contribution to Social Security Financing (Cofins), Income Tax, and social security contributions. Without the special regime, the rate would be 6%.

The second phase of the "Minha Casa, Minha Vida" (My House, My Life) program, Mantega reported, has financed 2,550 million units so far. Another 200 properties are expected to be contracted by the end of the year, reaching the target of 2,750 million planned for the housing program. The third phase of the program, which will begin in 2015, aims to finance the construction of 3 million units, including the 350 announced today.

The president of CBIC (Brazilian Chamber of Construction Industry) said that the government agreed to create working groups to discuss the creation of an intermediate tier of beneficiaries for the Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life) program. Currently, the program is divided into two categories. Families with income up to R$ 1,6 pay a monthly installment of R$ 80. Families earning more than R$ 1,6 pay R$ 300. "Undoubtedly, there is a need for a transition tier so that the installment amount does not increase so much from one category to another," he argued.

Martins also said that the organization requested changes to the highway, port, railway, and airport concession program to favor the hiring of medium-sized companies. "The model needs adaptations so that more companies can participate in the bidding process," he emphasized. Among the suggestions is the division of projects into lots, which can be built by smaller construction companies.