What is the government waiting for to lower the price of tablets?

Rodolfo Borges_247, from Brasília – President Dilma Rousseff's first order to the Minister of Communications, Paulo Bernardo, was to "take care of the tablets." Since then, the government has initiated a process that should culminate in tax exemptions that will lower the price of devices manufactured in the country by 30%. However, four months into the administration, no effective measures have been taken, other than the creation of a Basic Production Process (PPB) for tablets, which has not yet taken effect. The government's delay in reducing the price of these devices, among other electronics and media products (such as DVDs and Blu-rays), led Brasil 247 and its columnist Felipe Neto to launch a campaign for tax reductions on these products in the country. If a boost was needed, it's here: 120 signatures in less than 24 hours.

Owning an iPad, President Dilma Rousseff quickly recognized the importance of the tool in plans to universalize internet access in the country and appointed Paulo Bernardo to handle the matter. Paulo Bernardo is another tablet enthusiast – the minister said in an interview with Brasil 247 that, after buying his, he no longer reads newspapers on paper – and initiated a process that is now being conducted by the Secretariat for Production Development of the Ministry of Development (MDIC). The Minister of Development, Fernando Pimentel, opened a public consultation at the beginning of the month to evaluate the creation of the PPB (Basic Production Process).

The measure aims to define the rules that should reduce the tax burden on devices and has already attracted the attention of manufacturers such as Itautec, LG, Positivo, Samsung, and Motorola. This governmental movement is also encouraging Foxconn to open an iPad assembly plant in Brazil, in an announced investment of R$ 12 billion scheduled for November. Also involved in the project, the Minister of Science and Technology, Aloizio Mercadante, said this week that a working group composed of representatives from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCT), the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), the Federal Revenue Service, and the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) will begin discussing the list of requirements for the installation of the Foxconn factory in Brazil.

Education

While discussing ways to attract tablet production to the country, the government is already considering uses for the devices in the public education system. The Ministry of Education (MEC) has formed a working group solely to study the use of the devices in schools. The work is in its final stages, and in a recent interview, the Minister of Education, Fernando Haddad, said that if the government had universalized the "One computer per student" program, it would probably regret it, given the constant technological changes.

“Every year new things emerge that need to be considered from a pedagogical point of view,” said Haddad. The minister believes that the (already classic) computer labs are still useful, but that it is necessary to test all the new possibilities and make them available to education systems with pedagogical support, which should occur in the same way as “One computer per student”.

Minister Paulo Bernardo sees benefits in the adoption of tablets in schools, such as reducing the weight carried by students and the costs of distributing teaching materials by large educational institutions, which currently rely on the postal service to provide this service and, even with separate contracts, cannot meet the demand within the scheduled time. "A large education company works with 100 kits, a lot of unnecessary paperwork that, at the end of the year, is useless," said Bernardo, also highlighting the ecological importance of tablets.

Exemption

While the government is moving slowly to reduce taxes, the Chamber of Deputies is trying to speed things up. Federal Deputy Beto Albuquerque presented an amendment to Provisional Measure 517 to include tablets in tax benefits, which would help reduce the price of these products by 10%. The measure is supported by the Brazilian Association of Electrical and Electronic Industries (Abinee). The Federal Revenue Service has been classifying tablets as data processing equipment, but different from notebooks because they do not have keyboards.

The time has come to move from ideas to effective action.