Society is aware that smuggling finances organized crime and drug and arms trafficking and calls for tax review

Half of Brazilian society believes the federal government is primarily responsible for the entry of smuggled products into the country and 75% know that the trade in these illegal goods, such as cigarettes, favors the growth of violence and crime. The result is Datafolha search, commissioned by the Brazilian Institute of Competition Ethics (ETCO) and carried out throughout the national territory with more than two thousand people.

For 87% of respondents, the high tax rates on products manufactured in Brazil favor the increase in smuggled products in the national territory, mainly coming from Paraguay. Aware of this reality, practically all Brazilians are in favor of revising taxes on legal products to make their price more accessible and more competitive in relation to illegal ones.

Aware that cigarette smuggling from Paraguay, the main smuggled product, is the one who supplies the cash and finances the activities of criminal factions, such as the PCC, 75% of society agrees that the reduction of taxes on cigarettes manufactured in Brazil would contribute to the combating organized crime.

Asked about the consumption of contraband products, 26% of the interviewees admitted to the habit of buying illegal products, such as electronics, clothes, shoes, game DVDs and films and cigarettes. This rate is even higher among Brazilians aged 25 to 34 and between classes D and E, which exceed 30%. However, even though they are aware that smuggling favors violence, 46% say they continue to buy illegal products.

“The survey shows that the main stimulus to smuggling is the difference between the price, the result of the financial advantage that criminals have due to the tax disparity between Brazil and Paraguay. In other words, a review of taxes on national products is necessary so that we have full legality in the internal market and more security, ponders Evandro Guimarães, president of the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition.

"Society is also aware of the omission of the Federal Government and other authorities in the entry of smuggled products into Brazil and, consequently, of the increase in crime, with the drug and arms trafficking", concludes Guimarães.

In addition to violence and drug trafficking, unemployment and tax evasion are also traces left by smuggling illegal products. Every year, Brazil loses about R $ 115 billion with the trade of illegal goods, enough to build 974 hospitals, or 57 thousand daycare centers or 22 thousand public schools.

Check out the results of the survey conducted between August 23 and 27, 2016, with 2.081 people in Brazil.