Popular car: Government does not plan to extend program – 06/15/2023 – Power

The Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, said this Thursday (15th) that it is not in the Lula government’s plans to extend the tax credit program to lower the prices of new cars.

“It’s not the government’s plan [prorrogar o programa de benefícios tributários para carros populares]”, said the head of the Civil House, after a ministerial meeting at the Planalto Palace.

Rui Costa granted an interview to journalists after the third ministerial meeting. The meeting convened by President Lula (PT) takes place at a time when the government is receiving criticism for its political articulation, in addition to pressure from União Brasil for the dismissal of the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Carneiro.

At a certain point in the meeting, the vice-president and minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), presented the results of the tax reduction program for cars, buses and trucks.

According to reports from participants, Lula would then have joked with the vice president, asking him to go and warn Fernando Haddad (Finance) that “we will want to extend the incentive”, because it is a success.

Officially, however, the government denies any intentions of extending the measure.

“He made a joke when Alckmin reported that the program was having absolute success. He made a joke, but it is not in the government’s planning”, added Rui Costa.

Earlier this month, President Lula’s government announced a program that seeks to reduce the price of popular cars, through tax reductions.

The resources requested by automakers that joined the plan already add up to R$ 150 million –30% of the available ceiling–, according to the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services.

The sector already calculates that the measure, expected to last four months, can be ended with just one month of validity, for reaching the established quota.

During the interview, Rui Costa also took advantage of the issue of the car program to criticize the high interest rate stipulated by the Central Bank.

“Only this success [do programa] it shows that if we give credit conditions, lower financial costs for those who want to consume, there will be consumption in the country, retailers will sell. A small stimulus like that, the result is already very expressive at the beginning, “he said.

“The president, upon hearing reports from public banks, is betting on increasing microcredit to irrigate the economy, just as Banco do Brasil and Caixa are doing, to make cheap credit available to the poorest, who need it most, to do economy grows, economic activity can return and generate jobs”, he added.

In the opening speech, which was broadcast, Lula made some demands on ministers. She asked, for example, for more articulation with Secom (Secretary of Communication of the Presidency of the Republic), to publicize the government’s achievements in a more professional manner.

He also said that, from now on, it is “forbidden to have new ideas”, adding that now is the time to put into practice what had already been planned.

“We will have to launch this program [PAC 3], because you know that from now on we will be prohibited from having new ideas, we will have to comply with what we have been able to propose so far. The only thing that can change is the creation of schools, because every time a person asks for a school, I will say that we are going to do it”, said the president.