City councilor questions tax incentives for "Fielzão" stadium.
Councilman Aurélio Miguel requests a review of the tax incentive project for works at the Corinthians stadium.
247 – If it depends on councilman Aurélio Miguel (PR), the construction of the “Fielzão” stadium will be delayed. He demanded this Tuesday a review of the tax incentive project, which, according to him, is a form of guarantee under the internal regulations of the City Council. The project for the construction of the Corinthians stadium, which will be located in Itaquera, in the eastern zone of São Paulo, foresees incentives of R$ 420 million. Miguel is a board member of São Paulo FC, whose stadium, Morumbi, was passed over by FIFA and the CBF for use in the World Cup. Regardless of this fact, however, Miguel is speaking and acting in the same direction suggested by many citizens of São Paulo, who question why Corinthians should receive incentives. Judges have already considered the measure proposed by Mayor Gilberto Kassab as unconstitutional.
To reinforce his position, the former judoka argues that the money should be used in other sectors, such as education. However, the mayor of São Paulo, Gilberto Kassab, even offered the Sports and Participation and Partnership secretariats to the PR party at the end of last year. Meanwhile, the president of Corinthians, Andrés Sanches, stated through an official club statement that all World Cup stadiums are entitled to ISS (municipal service tax) exemption, including the Arena da Baixada in Curitiba and the Beira-Rio in Porto Alegre, which are privately owned. The amount invested in the Corinthians stadium guarantees tax exemption of up to 60%.
On his website, the city councilman wrote his opinion about the project. “It’s public money being used to fulfill the dream of a football club in the capital of São Paulo. (...) I don’t agree that this type of multi-million dollar investment should be made,” describes a section of the text.