Brasilia - The private technology sector is eagerly awaiting the Official Gazette of Thursday, September 18th. It will contain the details of the National Data Center Policy, the Provisional Measure (MP) signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva late this afternoon.
Amidst the anxiety surrounding the delay in publishing the Provisional Measure, NeoFeed spoke with executives present at the ceremony in the Palácio do Planalto to understand how the private sector received the text prepared by the government.
Despite the delay in publication, the general feeling is that the requests from the technology sector have been met. The most important of these was the tax exemption.
This was the big bet of business leaders to unlock investments, projected at R$ 2 trillion over 10 years, according to figures from the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade (MDIC) itself. Strategically, the government left issues such as copyright out of the provisional measure.
In addition to eliminating import taxes on products not manufactured in Brazil, the Provisional Measure exempts equipment from IPI, PIS, and Cofins taxes, anticipating the effects of the 2027 tax reform, as President Lula was keen to reiterate in his speech launching the Provisional Measure.
Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said that the provisional measure prevents a trade deficit in services and ensures data processing security in Brazil. "These are data centers to provide services to Brazilian companies, hospitals, the SUS (Brazilian public healthcare system), universities, and to attract sustainable investments to Brazil," Haddad said.
The companies that benefit will have to invest 2% of their research and development investments in digital production chains in Brazil; at least 10% of the services must be reserved for the domestic market; and the projects must meet sustainability requirements, using renewable or clean energy, as well as water efficiency.
“Attracting new investments will have direct repercussions on the national economy, generating skilled jobs, strengthening the supply chain, and expanding digital infrastructure, an essential condition for Brazil's competitiveness in the global economy,” says Renan Lima Alves of the Brazilian Data Center Association (ABDC).
Dialogue with the private sector
In the early months of the administration, in 2023, the federal government released a study on the development of data centers in the country, conducted by a private consulting firm. This was the first move to demonstrate a willingness to create a national policy for the installation of data processing centers.
The study, released by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC) and the Brazilian Agency for Industrial Development (ABDI), showed the need to create a basic infrastructure to attract investments to data centers, arguing for greater national security and data sovereignty.
At the forefront, the Planalto Palace appointed two officials to act as intermediaries with business leaders in the sector: Uallace Moreira Lima, Secretary of Industrial Development, Innovation, Commerce and Services at the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC), and Igor Marchesini Ferreira, special advisor to the Ministry of Finance. The pair participated in public hearings in Congress and at business events.
“It was a process, we started with a blank sheet of paper, but now we need to approve the Provisional Measure,” says Affonso Nina, president of the Association of Information and Communication Technology Companies (Brasscom). “It’s important to say that, in addition to the importation of equipment, the Provisional Measure also stimulates the national industry.”
One crucial point was left out of the plan: the delay in announcing the measure. The Provisional Measure on data centers had been drafted since the end of last May. But the crises caused by the increase in the Tax on Financial Operations (IOF) and the US President Donald Trump's tariff hike against Brazil delayed the announcement.
The delay in launching the program led the technology sector to doubt the implementation of the Provisional Measure. The text was even considered for inclusion in the regulatory framework for Artificial Intelligence, currently under consideration in the Chamber of Deputies. However, the urgency of the measure led the government to opt for the Provisional Measure, with immediate implementation.
The government's plan was to establish the rules quickly because of direct market competition with Chile and Colombia in South America, and with India in Asia. The sector has so far been dominated by the US and China, leaving Brazilian services hostage to foreign actions or data downturns, impacting Brazil.
“The Provisional Measure makes Brazil more competitive on the global map of data center destinations, leveraging the positive aspects we already have – clean, abundant energy, relatively good and extensive distribution infrastructure, as well as several submarine cables connecting to North America and Europe,” says Bruno Amatuzzi, a lawyer specializing in data center operations.
