Source: Paraná Online - Curitiba / PR - 01/10/2010

As of today, the Federal Revenue of Brazil (RFB) implements, in all borders, ports and airports in Brazil, the new luggage legislation created by Portaria MF nº 440/2010, of August 02, 2010, and regulated by Normative Instruction RFB No. 1.059.

In Paraguay, the subject is highlighted in the main media of the country, which call attention to a detail that, in the press here, is passing quickly: the most complete absence of news regarding Law 11.898 (Law of Sacoleiros), in effective since January 2009, however, never removed from the paper.

As a result of discussions that, until the publication of the article in the Official Gazette, took about three years, the Sacoleiros Law creates the Unified Taxation Regime (RTU) and allows current buyers (without the right to quote for resale) to formalize their activities through the opening of micro-importers.

Thus, with the CNPJ in hand, sacoleiros will be able to bring up to R $ 110 thousand in goods / year to Brazil, divided into quarterly quotas. The import rate, which unifies and simplifies the collection of six federal taxes, is 25%. However, due to lack of regulation, the regime could never be used.

“Brazil will begin to implement new tax rules for the entry of imported goods,” writes the newspaper ABC Color. "However, it continues to postpone the application of the RTU, due to the negligence of the Paraguayan government, which nevertheless announces a meeting with merchants and tax evaders."

The latest news on the Sacoleiros Law, dated 20/09, states that the system that will connect the customs offices of Brazil and Paraguay, for real-time verification of the invoices presented by future micro-importers, has gone one step further and should start operating in the first months of 2011.

The prospect is that the RTU will be put into practice in the first half of next year, however, after repeated postponements and inexplicable binational bureaucracy in this regard, any estimate becomes empty and subject to a huge margin of error.

Paraguayan newspapers also emphasize that while postponing the application of the regime that will formalize commercial activity on the border, the Brazilian government continues to apply restrictive and abusive measures in the Ponte da Amizade region.

One of them is the “Operation Sunset Sunset”, carried out by the RFB, on Saturdays, preventing the tour buses that cross towards Ciudad del Este from returning to Brazil before 17:00 and forcing passengers to wait long periods.

This wait does not end at 17:00, since, from this time on, the buses are subjected to strict inspection, in a procedure that, in some cases, goes beyond midnight.

The objective of the operation, in the opinion of the Paraguayans, is to discourage shopping tourism and amplify the “purplish” to trade. For the RFB, it is just a measure to order traffic and prevent buses loaded with large quantities of products from passing through customs during peak hours.

Short films of the day

* In an operation that can be considered “unusual” in the case of Lake Itaipu, agents from the National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD), from Paraguay, broke into a clandestine port and seized a boat that would carry 1,5 ton of marijuana to the Brazil.

According to information from SENAD, the operation took place yesterday afternoon, in Puerto Marangatu, Guaíra region, and resulted in the arrest of the Paraguayan Ademiro de Barros Ferreira, 23, who acted as “caregiver” of the clandestine port and the cargo of narcotics .

At the site, 64 bags containing 1.576 kilograms of marijuana were found, as well as a boat and a motorcycle. The seized material was sent to SENAD's regional base and will remain in storage until the Justice decides what steps to take in this regard.

The operation carried out by SENAD is unusual due to the fact that, usually, this type of procedure occurs, only on the Brazilian side of the border, where the confiscation of vessels with drugs, cigarettes or contraband products is considered routine.

* About 150 kilos of explosives that would end up in the hands of Brazilian organized crime. This was the balance of the police procedure carried out this Thursday in the Paraguayan city of Santa Rita, about 70 kilometers from the Triple Border.

According to the ABC Color newspaper, the seized explosives, which have a large destructive capacity, are part of a 250-kilogram plot stolen on the 17th, from the quarry of a quarry in Coronel Bogado, in the extreme south of Paraguay.

The cargo was taken in the body of a white Dodge pickup truck, intercepted on Route VI. Upon receiving a stop order, Vidal Fernández Ortiz, 49, the driver of the vehicle, accelerated and passed directly, being gunned down and stopped only at a second barrier mounted meters ahead.

One of the authorities' fears was that the explosives would reach the hands of the insurgent group “Army of the Paraguayan People - EPP”, which this week threatened with urban attacks. The most consistent hypothesis, however, is that they would be sold to dealers in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.