Source: Baguete, 30/01/2008

The Finance Secretariat of Rio Grande do Sul authorized this Tuesday, the 29th, the first Electronic Invoice for a company in Rio de Janeiro, via Sefaz Virtual. Rio Grande do Sul servers, managed by Procergs with local funds, plus R $ 5 million from the federal government and R $ 1,44 million from the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition (ETCO), intended for the redundancy of machines, also process NF-es for companies from four other states: Santa Catarina, Alagoas, Piauí and Paraíba. 

Currently, Fazenda do RS issues electronic notes to three companies from Santa Catarina and one from Rio de Janeiro, but there are 36 companies from nine other states undergoing tests. After this stage, organizations will be able to request authorization from NF-es through the gaucho system, with subsequent release for transit and transmission to the IRS.

As of April, the adoption of the NF-e will be nationally mandatory for the liquid fuel and cigarette sectors. In September, the automotive, beverage, medicine, cement, refrigerator, semi-finished and rolled steel, flat or long, re-drawn, drawn and profiled, pig iron and electricity suppliers segments entered the system. "This will increase the authorization of Notes by Sefaz Virtual from Rio Grande do Sul to other states", highlights the assistant director of State Revenue, Claudionor Martins Barbosa.

So far, RS has registered the issuance of more than one million electronic banknotes - a mark reached in November 2007. The state is the national leader in the segment, with almost half of the NF-es issued across the country.

Altogether, RS has already signed an agreement to issue NF-es to taxpayers in 13 states: Acre, Alagoas, Amazonas, Amapá, Maranhão, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraíba, Piauí, Rio de Janeiro, Roraima, Santa Catarina, Sergipe and Tocantins . Some agreements have already entered into operation, others await testing and others have not yet entered this phase.

In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the companies that have already adopted the electronic document are Dimed, Souza Cruz, Gerdau Aços Especiais, Gerdau Aços Longos, Ultragaz, Siemens, Sadia, General Motors, Toyota, Petrobras Distribuidora, Cervejias Kaiser, Usiminas, Alliance One and Ambev.