Factbox: Brazil presidential candidates' policy proposals

With Brazil on the brink of a recession, President Dilma Rousseff's two main challengers in the October election are promising a return to orthodox economic policies and greater transparency to restore business confidence and investment. Following are the policy proposals of the three main candidates running in Brazil's Oct. 5 presidential election: PRESIDENT DILMA ROUSSEFF - PT * Social Policy - President Dilma Rousseff said she plans to consolidate and expand the programs that have reduced poverty and income inequality in Brazil over the last decade. * Political Reform - Her Workers' Party, known as the PT, wants to hold a referendum to approve political reforms aimed at ending gridlock between the government and Congress, reducing the high number of parties and changing campaign finance rules. Her bid to call a referendum last year was swiftly rebuffed by her allies in Congress. * Taxes - Rousseff said tax reform will be a priority in a second term, to simplify taxation and cut red tape. But she most likely would continue with the current piecemeal approach due to the difficulty in negotiating with state and local governments. Her tax breaks policy by sector would continue. * Labor - Rousseff said she sees the need for reform of outdated labor laws to make Brazil more competitive, and is open to more outsourcing on the condition that it is negotiated with unions. The so-called 13th salary - an annual bonus that staff employees receive in Brazil - cannot be touched, though. * Infrastructure - Rousseff vows to speed up concessions in an area where her government has been slow to deliver. Building railways to carry raw materials to ports will be a priority. She says partnerships with private investors, both Brazilian and foreign, will be vital. * Broadband Connectivity - Rousseff's pet project is universal access to 50 megabyte Internet, similar to what has been achieved in South Korea. She said her government does not seek state control of this project. * Procurement - Rousseff promises a government purchases policy similar to Buy America to stimulate Brazilian industry. MARINA SILVA - PSB * Economic Policy - Environmentalist Marina Silva plans to restore growth and investor confidence by returning to the basics of fiscal responsibility, inflation targeting and a floating exchange rate, the so-called "tripod" of economic policies that gave Brazil stability after a period of rampant inflation and erratic growth in the 1990s. * Inflation - Her target is to reduce inflation to 4 percent by 2016 and 3 percent by the end of her term at the start of 2019. She has opposed the current's policy of subsidizing fuel and energy prices to contain inflation. * Taxes and Spending - Her PSB program calls for the removal of taxes on investment and exports, simplification of taxes by unifying duties levied, and the extension of payroll tax cuts to all sectors of the economy. Spending growth will not be allowed to grow faster than GDP. * Petrobras - The PSB would establish a clear formula for raising gasoline prices to help restore the finances of state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras. * Central Bank - Silva backs full autonomy of the central bank, though not necessarily requiring its formalization in a law, as her late running mate Eduardo Campos advocated. AECIO NEVES - PSDB * Growth and Investment - Pro-business opposition candidate Aecio Neves vows to revive Brazil's stagnant economy by restoring credibility, predictability and transparency in government. He hopes to boost investment to 24 percent of GDP by 2018 from the current 18 percent. * Forex Policy - Neves opposes using currency intervention to bolster the real to curb inflation coming from more expensive imports. He wants the real to float freely to make Brazilian exports more competitive. * Gasoline Prices - Neves says he has the political courage to take tough decisions Brazil needs, such as ending subsidized fuel and energy prices. But he says this will be done gradually and accuses the government of planning a "tarifazo" or sudden hike in contained prices after the elections. * Tax Reform - Neves would send Congress a bill in his first days in office to simplify Brazil's complex and onerous tax code. He would have a VAT, or value-added tax, replace several indirect taxes. * Infrastructure - Neves said he plans to increase badly needed investment in infrastructure to 5 percent of GDP by opening up to more private investment, both domestic and foreign. He would not set an internal rate of return for projects, leaving that to the market. * Trade and Foreign Policy - Neves would end what he calls Brazil's ideological alignment with regional leftist governments and base foreign policy on commercial interests, seeking trade pacts with Europe, the United States and China while giving less importance to the Mercosur trade bloc, which is seen as holding Brazil back. He would move to end double taxation for Brazilian companies operating abroad. * Smaller Government - Neves said he would cut Brazil's 39 ministries to about half the number to reduce bureaucracy and replace political cronyism with a performance-based meritocracy. * Fiscal Discipline - Neves pledged to rein in current spending and seek a flexible but "doable" primary budget surplus target without resorting to creative accounting used by the Rousseff administration to square the books. * Finance Minister - Neves plans to pick former central bank governor Arminio Fraga to head his economic team. (Compiled by Brazil newsroom)