Source: Official Portal of the State of Bahia - 18/09/2009

Expand the fight against tax evasion, through the development of a system aimed at the inspection of segments required to issue the Electronic Invoice (NF-e), and promote competitive ethics.

These are the objectives of the cooperation agreement that the Government of Bahia, through the Secretariat of Finance (Sefaz), will sign with the Brazilian Institute of Competition Ethics (ETCO), on Monday (21), at 14 pm, in a ceremony at Governance.

ETCO will be responsible for providing the development of information analysis tools aimed at auditing control of the data contained in the Electronic Invoices and will make it available free of charge to Sefaz.

The Secretariat of Finance, after the development and implementation of the system, undertakes to make all source codes and technical documentation available to other Secretariats of Finance in Brazil who are interested in implementing the program.

The technical and operational execution of the cooperation agreement will take place by a Steering Committee, whose members are part of the respective cooperative institutions. The committee comprises two representatives appointed by ETCO, two by Sefaz and one by the coordination of the National Meeting of State Tax Coordinators and Administrators (Encat), an entity whose general and technical coordination is carried out by fiscal auditors of the secretariat.

Participating in the event are Governor Jaques Wagner, ETCO President André Franco Montoro Filho, and the Undersecretary of Finance, Carlos Alberto Batista.

ETCO and Electronic Invoice

In operation since 2003, the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition is a civil society organization of public interest (Oscip) that brings together companies and non-governmental business entities, with the aim of promoting improvement in the business environment and stimulating actions that avoid competitive imbalances caused by tax evasion, informality, forgery and other misconduct.

The institute also stands out for proposing and supporting initiatives such as the one to be signed, which encourage ethical behavior in the economy. The ETCO comprises six sectorial chambers, bringing together companies in the technology, medicine, fuel, tobacco, beer and soft drink segments.

The Electronic Invoice, created with the objective of replacing the paper invoice with digital invoices, is the new model of fiscal document that has become mandatory use since April 2008 for the fuel and cigarette segments and has already moved a R $ 5,7 trillion across Brazil. The Electronic Invoice System has already passed the 390 million mark in Brazil, with 16,7 million issued in Bahia.