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3 2.4 to 2.9.2019 alternatives would be to expand the scope of this program, allowing the application of the credits in other investments. Another proposal taken to the Finance Department team was to adjust the ICMS itself, so that the rate is diluted in the different incidents: “We understand that the government includes it in its budget when collecting the tax, and then it gets difficult to return it. That way, the collection would be more realistic”. The third proposal is more advanced. It has even been targeted by a decree published last year and now goes through its regulatory phase. That is the transfer of accumulated ICMS credits from the vehicle industry to the tooling companies. In the executive’s opinion, it would be an ideal scenario, because “it would strengthen the tooling industry, which used to be very strong in Brazil and is experiencing difficulties today”. Megale argued that, with that proposal, everybody wins: the automakers, which would recover the ICMS overpaid on new tools - today, according to the executive, a good part of this material is imported - the government, which by returning the ICMS, would generate more industrial activity, creating jobs and more taxes, and the tooling industry, which would be strengthened. There is no response scheduled from the state government regarding the lawsuits of the automotive industry. But the Treasury Department released a statement two weeks ago informing that it has been studying measures related to the ICMS credits that the automakers are entitled to receive - provoked by General Motors’ board of directors, which sought alternatives with the government to make viable its investments planning in the Brazilian market. Production - The decrease in exports slowed the pace of vehicle assembly lines in January. According to Anfavea, production in the first month of the year totaled 196,8 thousand units, a decrease of 10% compared to January 2018. About December, the increase was of 10.8%. The president of Anfavea minimized the decline and called the result as “reasonable. It could have been better if we had exported a little more”.