Society is aware that smuggling finances organized crime
                                 and drug and arms trafficking and calls for tax review

Datafolha research shows that 75% of society in the Southeast is aware that the trade in illegal products favors the growth of violence and crime. The smuggling of cigarettes from Paraguay, the main smuggled product, is who supplies the cash and funds the activities of criminal factions.

Commissioned by the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition (ETCO), in partnership with the National Forum Against Piracy and Illegality (FNCP), the unprecedented survey also reveals that 86% of respondents in the region believe that the high tax rates on products manufactured in Brazil favor the increase of smuggled in the national territory, mainly coming from Paraguay.

Even aware of this reality, when asked about the consumption of contraband products, 25% of respondents in the Southeast admit the habit of buying illegal products, such as electronics, clothes, shoes, DVDs of games and films and cigarettes.

Almost 90% of the Southeast population is in favor of revising taxes on legal products to make their price more affordable and more competitive compared to illegal ones. In addition, half of Brazilians believe that the federal government is primarily responsible for the entry of smuggled products into the country.

“The survey shows that the main stimulus to smuggling is the difference between the price, the result of the financial advantage that criminals have due to the tax disparity between Brazil and Paraguay. In other words, there is a need for greater inspection at the borders of the Midwest and a review of taxes on national products so that we have full legality in the domestic market and more security ”, ponders Edson Vismona, president of the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition.

"Society is also aware that it is the responsibility of the Federal Government and other authorities to combat smuggling in Brazil and, consequently, to increase crime, with drug and arms trafficking," concludes Vismona.

In addition to violence and drug trafficking, unemployment and tax evasion are also traces left by smuggling illegal products. Every year, Brazil loses about R $ 115 billion with the trade of illegal goods, enough to build 974 hospitals, or 57 thousand daycare centers or 22 thousand public schools.