Brasília,5/7/2004 - The federal government is going to launch a program to assist scientists reduce the cost of importing material and equipment for research. Known as the "Easy Import" (Importa Fácil), it will raise the import surtax exemption from US$3,000 to US$10,000 for researchers, and get the Post Office to streamline its delivery system.

The idea is to dovetail Easy Import with the recently announced Innovation Law and give scientific and technological research a boost.

"These are important steps in cutting red tape, especially in research at the corporate level," said Ennio Candotti, the president of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC).

Yesterday Candotti participated in a meeting of the National Council of Science in Technology which was attended by president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. On that occasion, Candotti gave Lula a petition signed by scientists calling for scientific and technological funding to be designated as infrastructure investments. As such, those expenditures would not be included in calculations of the primary account surplus (which is the IMF yardstick for measuring fiscal responsibility).

[Candotti is moving well ahead of the curve with his petition. The IMF has not said it will permit Brazil, or anyone else, to enter infrastructure spending as "investments" rather than "expenditures" in its primary account bookkeeping (the IMF is studying the matter). What Brazil wants is to relax the fiscal straitjacket it is presently wearing as a result of agreeing to achieve annual primary account surpluses of 4.25% of GDP. That definitely cramps the government's ability to spend. Brazil has shown goodwill by reaching a Q1 primary surplus of 5.41% of GDP]

Translator: Allen Bennett