#fairprice: tax reduction could accelerate iPad production in Brazil
Foxconn CEO writes letter to President Dilma guaranteeing he wants to start production in July. He requests tax cuts to invest US$12 billion and hire 100 workers over five years.
247_ Businessman Terry Gou sent a letter to President Dilma Rousseff committing to bringing forward the assembly of iPads and iPhones in Brazil from November to July, reports the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, in a story by Vera Magalhães.
Gou accompanied Dilma on her trip to China this year to confirm the installation of a Foxconn factory in Brazil, likely in the interior of São Paulo. It is estimated that, with investments of US$12 billion over the next five years, the company could generate 100 new jobs.Learn more about who he is and how Foconn operates.).
The first step towards bringing forward the production date of the iPad and iPhone would be sending 200 Brazilian electronics engineers to China. They would learn about the technologies used by Foxconn and the company's production methods.
One of Foxconn's demands to expedite the start of national iPad production, as outlined in Gou's letter to Dilma, is a reduction in taxes on the product. Gou asked Dilma for a new tax framework for the iPad, leveling it with that of a notebook computer. The Federal Revenue Service is reluctant to take this measure – already supported by the more than 400 signatories of the #precojusto manifesto, launched by Brasil 247 and columnist Felipe Neto – because the iPad does not have a physical keyboard like laptops, but only a virtual one. This equalization would immediately result in a 9,25% reduction in PIS and Cofins taxes levied on the iPad. Apple has already sent the first batches of components for assembling the Brazilian iPad to the country. They are currently at Foxconn's industrial plants in Jundiaí and Indaiatuba.
“It’s an ambitious timeline,” Minister of Science and Technology Aloizio Mercadante told Folha. “We will do everything in our power to make it viable.” In political parlance, he seems to have said that, yes, he is willing to fight for tax reductions in exchange for the new factory and the thousands of jobs it will generate.