Dilma defends investments to link railroads

In her weekly column distributed on this Tuesday to the media, the President Dilma Rousseff defends the railroad integration of all regions of the country. She tells that there are more than 3,000 kilometers of railroads under construction and that the federal government, both in her management and in the former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s, has returned to invest in the industry.

“My government has absolute belief in the importance of the railroads. Therefore, we have today more than 3.000 kilometers of railroads under construction.  We are in a period of recovery of investments in the industry because we finally want to promote a railroad interconnection between all regions of the country,” Dilma said.

According to the President, from 1986 to 2002, only 215 kilometers of railroad tracks have been built, while on the last nine years 753 kilometers of railroad tracks have been completed.
“With the expansion of the network that we are promoting, there will be a more effective participation of the railroads in Brazil’s transport matrix,” Dilma said.

She cites stretches in the construction of the North-South Railroad, between Palmas (state of Tocantins) and Estrela D’Oeste (state of São Paulo); New Transnordestina, between Eliseu Martins (state of Piauí) and the ports of Suape (state of Pernambuco) and Pecém (state of Ceará); East-West Integration Rairoad, between Ilhéus (state of Bahia) and Figueirópolis (state of Tocantins); and the Ferronorte stretch between Alto Araguaia and Rondonópolis (state of Mato Grosso).

The President addressed the issue by answering the following question from the 31-year-old environmental manager from Vespasiano (state of Minas Gerais), Daniel Muniz de Alvarenga: The major developed countries have extensive railroad networks, but in Brazil the railroads are not alternatives to long distance transport. What we see today is a complete abandonment. What does the government intend to do?

According to Dilma, in addition to the stretches under construction, projects were completed for other 3,700 kilometers and studies and projects of railroads totaling more than 3,500 kilometers are under preparation.

The President also talked about the complementary law 139/2011, which amended the Brazilian Statute of the Micro-Business and the Small Business, remembering that this law is in force since January 1st and expands the access to the Simple and Individual Microentrepreneur Tax Systems:

For individual microentrepreneurs, the limit rose from $18,397.85 in annual sales to $30,663.08; for micro-business, from $122,652.35 to $183,978.53; and for small businesses, the limit was extended from $1.22 million to $1.83 million. And to boost exports of micro and small businesses, the revenue threshold can even double – rising to $2.45 million and $3.67 million – if the additional revenue comes from sales abroad.

According to Dilma, another novelty is that all companies opting for the Simple Tax System can amortize their debt in up to five years.

The President also discussed the granting of tax exemptions for private hospitals that are considered high performance hospitals, such as Sírio-Libanês and Albert Einstein, in São Paulo.

“This type of partnership exists with dozens of hospitals. In addition to that you cited, there are others of proven excellence in their activities, such as Hospital Moinho de Vento, in Porto Alegre, and Hospital Samaritano, Hospital Oswaldo Cruz e Hospital do Coração in São Paulo. Currently there are 120 ongoing projects under the Support Program for Unified Health System (SUS) Institutional Development (PROADI-SUS). Over the past three years, from 2009 to 2011, the projects totaled $427.03 million in tax exemptions. This partnership is worth it: they are the hospitals of excellence that are supporting us, for example, in the process of improving the management and care of the main public emergency rooms in Brazil, in the SOS Emergência (SOS Emergency). This association between the government and the philanthropy private sector is essential to qualify more and more the services provided by SUS, with benefits for the entire Brazilian population” – Dilma said.