Source: O Estado de S. Paulo, 13/06/2005

The Etco Institute's television campaign, composed of five 30-second films that portray the “Brazilian way”, aims to cause indignation in the population and, with that, make the political and tax reforms, so necessary to the country, take place.

By Laura Ignacio

A television campaign that shows, among other things, the extent to which some Brazilians have arrived to escape the high tax burden, is drawing the attention of the population. With the slogan “No, this is not the type of Brazilian I want for my country”, Etco - Brazilian Institute of Competitive Ethics - is running five films to try to end the famous “Brazilian way”, encouraged by the excess of bureaucracy and high tax burden. Produced by Central Globo de Comunicação, at the request of the entity, formed by private companies, the films portray types such as the “corrupt inspector”, “the politician”, the “civil servant” and “hard-core tax evader”.

Sonegometer - Within its strategy of offering solutions to end tax evasion, resulting from the high tax burden, Etco makes available on the internet (www.etc.org.br) a tool that reveals how much the government loses in revenue - due to tax evasion, counterfeiting of products and smuggling in the sectors of drinks, fuel and cigarettes - while the citizen browses the institute's website: the sonegometer.

Etco's president, Emerson Kapaz, explains that the objective of the television campaign that portrays the “Brazilian way”, in the air since the beginning of the month, is to provoke indignation about certain behaviors that, according to him, should be rejected and ended up becoming common. "It is our indignation about this type of practice that will make political and tax reforms happen in Brazil," he says.

But the director of the Instituto de Economia Gastão Vidigal of the Commercial Association of São Paulo (ACSP), Marcel Solimeo, believes that the campaign can denigrate the image of the Brazilian businessman. "Most entrepreneurs who are in the informal sector, mostly small, are only in this situation because they would not be able to survive in the market with the current high tax burden and bureaucracy", he recalls. For him, the campaign should attack the causes and not the effects of an unfair tax policy.

Kapaz admits that the main causes of these behaviors are the flawed tax system, bureaucracy and impunity, but he still condemns tax evasion. “If the tax burden is high, there are proven ways to change that. With regard to Provisional Measure 232, for example, we managed to overturn the tax increase through public acts ”, says Kapaz, recalling the pressure made by the Brazilian Front against MP 232.

Research - Kapaz said that, in August, Etco will publish the results of a survey conducted by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) to show how to reduce the tax burden, without losing revenue. "Through this study we will prove that with the unification of the ICMS rates, for example, there will be a reduction in tax evasion and an increase in tax collection".

Today, a company spends 1,5% of revenue to keep up with labor and tax legislation, among other controls, according to Kapaz. "All of this is a cost for the entrepreneur, but we have to fight to simplify this bureaucracy and not get the inspector's hand wet."

But, for Kapaz, at the same time that society has to be aware that evading taxes or buying pirated products is bad for him “because it reduces the collection and the collection is ours”, it is necessary to increase the pressure so that the government to provide better services with the resources it collects. "The participation of civil society in the National Council to Combat Piracy to control the application of government resources in the fight against trade in counterfeit products is an example of this," he says.

 Read more about “Ethical Values” and watch the campaign films