Source: JB Online - RJ - 02/08/2009

BRASILIA - In the first quarter of this year, only in the West and Southwest regions of the state of Paraná - especially in Cascavel - more than 4,5 million packs of smuggled cigarettes from Paraguay were seized. To get an idea of ​​the increase in crime, last year the government seized a total of 7,5 million packs - taking into account the box with 20 units, it was 150 million cigarettes.

Approximately 45% of cigarettes consumed in Brazil come from smuggling. And one fact draws attention: a good part of the inputs used for production by the Paraguayan industry is imported from Brazil. Of the total tobacco imported by Paraguay until June this year, for example, 60% came from Brazil.

Paraguay currently produces approximately 40 billion cigarettes a year. Only three billion are for domestic consumption and about 19 billion are illegally exported to Brazil. Even with the recent increase in PIS-Cofins and IPI levied on Brazilian cigarettes, the collection loss is approximately R $ 1,2 billion per year. And it is not possible to specify the damage to the labor market.

- Smuggled cigarettes do not create jobs and do not pay taxes. The competition has been very unfair - says the director of Strategic Planning at Souza Cruz, Paulo Ayres. - With taxes levied on cigarettes, which in Brazil reach 85% of the product, it is impossible to charge less than R $ 2,20 for a pack. And you can find cigarettes up to R $ 1 out there.

According to Ayres, Brazil has done a good job of monitoring, but the long border between the two countries makes it difficult to repress criminals.

The founder of the Brazilian Association to Combat Counterfeiting (ABCF), Fernando Ramazzini, agrees that the extension of the border is the main obstacle to the fight against this crime:

- If you take all the Brazilian police, it does not cover 10% of the border - exaggerates. - We should strengthen relations with the government of Paraguay so that it helps us to fight smugglers. The problem is that we will have to hear that the smuggler is the Brazilian who goes there to buy the cigarette.

Despite the fact that the Brazilian industry is one of the main suppliers of raw material to Paraguayan manufacturers, Ramazzini is unaware of a legal measure that can be taken against them, since the products that leave here are legal and taxed.

For the Federal Police delegate in Cascavel, Algacyr Mikalovski, beyond the border, there is a problem in the legal system that favors cigarette smuggling: the penalty for those who commit the crime of smuggling - crossing the border with an illegal product - is the same for those who practice diversion - crossing the border with permitted products, but without paying taxes. And, for this reason, the delegate defends changes in article 334 of the Penal Code to more rigorously punish the smuggling of products that cause harm to health.

In general, the focus of the discussion about cigarette smuggling in Brazil has always been focused on the tax issue, leaving aside the evils that this product causes to the health of the population.

Report sent by the Brazilian Association to Combat Counterfeiting (ABCF) to the Federal Police shows that, in the composition of the Paraguayan cigarette, there are several components that are harmful to the health of the consumer, among which tobacco bug, plastics and insecticides prohibited in Brazil for more than 20 years, for being carcinogenic.