Author: Ramona Ordoñez

Source: O Globo - Rio de Janeiro / RJ - 23/07/2010

If you think about opening a company in Brazil, how about a pizzeria in Amapá? The question, in a joking tone, is from the manager of Infrastructure and New Investments at the Federation of Industries of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Firjan), Cristiano Prado. He explained that, during the performance of an unprecedented study on the costs and bureaucracy to open a company in the country, when calling the Junta Comercial do Amapá to get information on how to open a company, the call falls in a pizzeria: - The difficulties already start in the search for information and continue in the enormous bureaucracy and high expenses. This makes it difficult to start new companies.

The study, which will be released today by Firjan, concludes that the average cost to open a company in Brazil is R $ 2.038, three times more than the average of Bric - a blobo that includes Russia, India and China - where the expense is of R $ 672. Here, more is spent on the attorney's visa, which represents 35% of the total, and on the Fire Department's license, another 25%

Process with up to 8 steps and 16 fees

In the bureaucracy network, the study, which took three months to be elaborated, also concluded that the opening of a company involves six to eight stages, in addition to the payment of up to 16 fees.

The executive pointed out that the greater expense to open a company in the country implies a loss of competitiveness in Brazil in relation to its main competitors.

According to the study, in 2008, for the opening of 247,5 thousand companies, R $ 430 million were spent.

Considering the costs to open companies in the other countries that, together with Brazil, form the block called Bric (Russia, India and China), the expense in the country was R $ 264 million higher. That is, in these three countries the average cost was R $ 166 million.

- The cost of our inefficiency is R $ 264 million, compared to the other BRIC countries, our major competitors - said Prado.

Among South American countries, Colombia is a reference in facilities for starting a business.

In addition to having less bureaucracy, the cost in the country is R $ 1.213.

In the ranking of the 21 states surveyed, the most expensive place to start a company is in Sergipe: R $ 3.597. The State of Rio is the fifth most expensive: R $ 2.811. Paraíba is the cheapest in the country: R $ 963. São Paulo is the seventh cheapest, with a cost of R $ 1.711. According to Prado, the data collected showed that the average cost to open a company in Brazil varies up to 431%, without considering the expenses with health license, in the case of medium and large companies.

The study also found that the average costs to open an industry in the country vary from R $ 2.548, without a sanitary permit, to R $ 3.134, with the permit. In order to open a trade, costs reach R $ 2.631, while in a service company they reach R $ 2.600.

- The conclusion is that only the entrepreneur who wants a lot is legal in Brazil. Because the whole system is built in a way that encourages the non-legalization of the company, making the process as difficult as possible, which is also very expensive - said Prado.

According to the executive, in the presentation of the study today, the idea is to discuss the matter with national and international experts, in order to develop a set of suggestions to be sent to the government and candidates for the Presidency of the Republic. Integrating all processes will be one of the suggestions of entrepreneurs. Prado explained that the idea is that the entire process and monitoring of costs should be centralized, for example, at the Commercial Board.

Among suggestions, the end of authentication

But, in addition to simplifying the process, Firjan's idea is to present suggestions to reduce the costs of starting companies in the country. One is to eliminate the requirement to have a lawyer visa in the process.

- The real value of the lawyer is not receiving to give the visa in a document, but the work that does business evaluation - affirmed Prado.

The reduction in the cost of the Fire Department's license, which represents 25% of total expenses, is part of the list of suggestions. Others that will certainly be part of the job, according to the executive, are the elimination of notary costs and the end of the need to authenticate documents.

- Only in Rio de Janeiro each certified copy costs R $ 5,09 - cited Prado as an example.