Source: Portal R7 - - ECONOMY - 03/12/2010

The Brazilian government fails to collect around R $ 40 billion in taxes with the entry and sale of pirated goods in the national territory, according to projection by the president of IBL (Instituto Brasil Legal) and the National Forum Against Piracy and Illegality, Édson Luiz Vismona.

On the National Day to Combat Piracy, remembered this Friday (3), the entity states that the loss may be much greater because the taxes are only part of the final price of the product. Calculating the size of the hole according to the economy segment, however, is almost impossible, according to Vismona.

- Our estimate roughly, because we do not have a very specific data, with data from the Ministry of Justice, the loss with tax evasion reaches R $ 40 billion per year. Now, it is difficult to estimate how much each sector loses with this unfair competition, which is well above this R $ 40 billion. To give you an idea, the tax is a percentage of the movement, which is much higher.

Piracy affects practically all productive sectors, according to Vismona. There are glasses, sneakers, electronics, medicines, perfumes, cosmetics, lamps, toys, cigarettes, cleaning products, pay TV, printing cartridges, watches, clothes, pens, fabrics.

- All sectors of the economy are affected by the scourge of piracy in our country.

This week, Fecomercio-RJ (Trade Federation of the State of Rio de Janeiro) released a survey that points out that more than 70 million Brazilians consume pirated products. This audience represents almost half of the current Brazilian population.

For the president of Sindireceita (National Union of Internal Audit Careers of the Federal Revenue), Paulo Antenor de Oliveira, the more intense monitoring and inspection of Brazilian borders would reduce the impact of the entry of pirated products into the country, where weapons and drugs also enter .

- The main routes of entry [of pirated products in the country] are Paraná, in cities like Foz do Iguaçu and Guaíra, and part of Mato Grosso do Sul, in the locations of Bela Vista, Mundo Novo and Ponta Porã.

Oliveira says that Brazil has almost 17 km of borders and only 31 official border points - which would facilitate the verification of cargo entering the country. Customs, however, suffers from a lack of equipment to detect illegal goods.

- There are few points, [which are] poorly equipped and with little effective. You do not find scanners, which puts many difficulties in the work of repressing what enters the country. The scanner is responsible for the comb. Without you opening it, it already checks the load.

Today, there are only scanners at two border points, one in Uruguaiana and the other in Foz do Iguaçu.

The union president, who prepared a detailed study on Brazilian borders, also complains about the lack of employees from the IRS, which compromises the realization of magazines in the currencies.

- Today there are 596 employees working in the border areas, but about 1.100 would be needed.