Porto Alegre, July 17, 2015 - Brazil is losing the fight for smuggling. Products from different sectors enter the country illegally, without technical or health certification and without collecting taxes, which ends up generating a huge tax evasion to public coffers, in addition to harming people's health, subtracting Brazilian jobs, increasing insecurity in cities and borders and undermine national sovereignty and defense.

Annually, billions of reais in taxes are no longer collected due to the illegal entry of products into the country. The estimate is that the country has losses of around R $ 100 billion with contraband (sector losses + tax evasion), a sufficient resource to build 1,4 million popular houses, 105 thousand km of highways, 77 thousand hospital beds and 19 thousand daycare centers.

The president of the Mixed Parliamentary Front to Combat Smuggling and Counterfeiting, Mr Efraim Filho (DEM / PB) points out that the government lacks momentum in the fight against smuggling. “In recent years, the government has carried out the successful Agate operations, a union of federal forces such as the Army, the Federal Police, among others, for the closure of borders, one of the most effective ways to combat smuggling. But in 2015, when we entered the second semester, nothing was done in this regard. ”

For the parliamentarian, "the Mercosur summit e is an excellent opportunity for the Brazilian government to demand from the president of Paraguay, Horácio Cartes, measures to combat the indiscriminate smuggling of products that cross the border towards Foz do Iguaçu".

The hearing took place at the headquarters of Afocefe, an entity representing the State Revenue Tax Technicians.

Source: No Contraband website (17/07).

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