Por Carlos Eduardo Valim ( Gazeta Mercantil / page A6)

The software sector came out as one of the main beneficiaries of yesterday´s industrial policy announcement. Its main claim, reduction of labor benefits was attended to. The company estimates that 80% of its costs are related to workmanship and there was 80% of benefits by contracted parties, states the president of Stefanini IT Solutions, Marco Stefanini, who was one of the businessmen that worked the most with the government to ensure that the benefits were taken to the sector. With the announcement the government believes that the tax burden with personnel may fall to 60% in the sector, according to the information of Brasil Agency.

A measure that should bring the greatest impact to the sector shall be the permission for information and automation companies to deduct the research and development related expenditures from the calculation basis of Income Tax and Social Contribution over Net Profit multiplied by a factor of 1.8.

The sector shall still benefit by the double deduction of expenses with accelerated personnel training program to determine the calculation basis of the Income Tax and Social Contribution over Net Profit.

There is the reduction of the employer contribution for social security over the payroll for up to 10% in addition to reducing the contribution for the S System to zero, according to the participation of exportations in the company´s invoicing. A measure already included in the MP do Bem, of PIS/Cofins [Employees´ Profit Participation Program / Tax for social security financing] suspension in the purchase of capital goods (Repes), may also be used by companies that exportation 50% of the invoicing - before the goal was 80%.

"The stimulus is interesting and was performed in the correct manner for it being meritocratic" There is no advance loans for businessmen. The company may reduce the roll as it exportations more", states the president of the software company Virtus, André Fonseca. "The package is liberal in meaning of the government affirm that the companies with the greatest alignment to the country´s strategic objectives, which is the expansion of exportations, shall have less burden of the Country on their backs."

Virtus currently exportation 10% of its invoicing and has a goal of reaching 25% in 2011.

The government, through the Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, announced that the measures intends to increase the exportation of software and related services from US$ 800 million in 2007 to US$ 3.5 billion in 2010.

According to the president of the Brazilian Association of Software and Service Exportation Companies, Antonio Carlos Gil, the challenge now, after achieving the desired benefits, shall be to create 100 thousand jobs in the segment, a new goal of the government and a contingency that allows the companies achieve more expressive international results.

"We recognize the importance of the software sector in the whole world. And we were never remembered in anything" said Stefanini. Fonseca, Virtus president, said that he was only impressed by the manner that reasonable measures took so long to surface, and that this is due to the fact that the segment never had "voice" for it being divided. "It is only now that it is gaining force with the consolidation in companies like Totvs, Datasul, Tivit and Virtus".

The government promises to encourage this consolidation process. It announced its intention to encourage, within the new policy, the creation of at least two large groups with invoicing greater than R$ 1 billion.