Source: LegisCenter - SP - ARTICLES - 27/08/2009

A technical evaluation by the Federal Revenue Service disapproved of the idea of ​​forcing wine producers and importers to stick stamps on bottles to prove payment of the Tax on Industrialized Products (IPI). The request is from the Sectorial Chamber of Wine and had been taken to the Minister of Agriculture on April 6. The decision will be made by the Minister of Finance, Guido Mantega, but the matter will be referred by the executive secretary of the ministry, Nelson Machado.

Yesterday, the Undersecretary of Collection and Attendance of the Revenue, Michiaki Hashimura, received parliamentarians and several representatives of 102 small wine producers. They criticized the high cost of the stamp, approximately R $ 0,20 per bottle, compared to the minimum price per kilo of grape (R $ 0,46).

Vallontano partner Luís Henrique Zanini - president of the Brazilian Union of Family Wineries and Small Wineries (Uvifam) - explained that the document brought to the IRS demonstrates that the seal does not prevent fraud and evasion, but has enough cost to remove companies from the market with family structure. “The IRS was very sensitive to our arguments. They said that the government will not take a decision that could harm family entrepreneurs ”, revealed Zanini.

Vallontano is an example of a winery that may not support this bureaucratic burden and additional costs. Zanini revealed that his company has four partners and still has two interns. They produce red, white and sparkling wines, with a total of about 30 thousand bottles per year.

According to Zanini, several associations that supported the idea of ​​the seal went back after being informed of the costs and bureaucracy that they will have to face. In this situation, he cited the Catarinense Association of Altitude Wines (Acavitis), ProGoethe (an entity that represents wineries in Santa Catarina that use this grape), the Brazilian Enology Association, the Gaúcha Association of Vitivinicultors (Agavi) and the Associação Garibaldi Wineries (Aviga).

José Molon, from Agavi, tried to emphasize that his entity voted in favor of the seal because it did not have the opportunity to receive information or even to discuss the matter at all. Now, they want to make it clear to the government that the 78 wineries represented are against the label.

Another Uvifam leader, Werner Schumacher, countered one of the arguments of the seal's defenders. The estimate of 15 million liters per year that would enter the market without paying taxes is, in his assessment, negligible when compared to the 150 million liters in excess that, last year, did not find a market in Brazil. “The country has more than 1 million points of sale. Who will oversee them? The operational cost of the stamp is very high and the bureaucracy is enormous. To make our situation worse, the bonding will have to be manual ”, he protested.

The document of the Sectorial Chamber of Wine delivered in April to the Minister of Agriculture, Reinhold Stephanes, asks that the initial and experimental duration of the IPI control seal be two years. If it is not effective, it must be extinguished.