Folha de São Paulo publishes an article by the ETCO president: The law is not for everyone.
THE LAW IS NOT FOR EVERYONE
By EDSON VISMONA
A study by the Brazilian Institute of Planning and Taxation, with data until September 30, 2016, reveals that the Union, states and municipalities have edited 5,47 million rules since the promulgation of the current Constitution, on October 5, 1988.
It may seem incredible, and it is: for the reader to have an idea of what this represents, there were 535 laws, decrees, provisional measures, complementary norms or amendments edited per day, on average. The survey also points out that, in the analyzed period, the Federal Government issued 163 thousand rules; the states, 1.460.985; and the municipalities, 3.847.866.
This desire to regulate everything and everyone has some important and serious consequences for the country. On the one hand, the truth is that a part of the market adapts and follows laws, decrees and rules. All serious companies, of course, seek to be informed in order to comply with the regulations in force, even if it costs money. It is no coincidence that in Brazil companies are the world champions in hours spent to meet tax requirements: 2.600!
Another part of the market, the illegal, however, simply ignores the State, the decrees, laws, technical norms - and solemnly, without any fear of the consequences that this posture may entail. And why the lack of fear? The answer is simple: the government does not have a supervisory structure that can control this tangle of legislation - in fact, part of which is in conflict with each other.
This creates a serious systemic distortion: those who obey the legislation have a basic competitive disadvantage. This aspect, in fact, should be the object of a deep reflection by our government officials: if the regulatory agencies - all of them, without exception, Anac, Anatel, ANP, Aneel, Anvisa etc. - do not carry out their activities satisfactorily, this regulatory action needs to be immediately revised, reinforcing the inspection action, strengthening the eminently technical posture and the increase of the resources destined for this action.
And what does unfair competition mean in practice? What are its consequences? At the end of the process, we have two parallel markets: the one based on legality and the purely illegal, built from the evasion of taxes and duties, the smuggling of products from abroad - always sold with stratospheric profit margins -, counterfeiting and piracy.
Whoever circumvents the rules ends up hurting the consumer: the cigarette that comes from Paraguay does not pass the minimum requirements of Anvisa; the same is true of medicines and health-related products and lamps, appliances and toys that do not meet Inmetro regulations.
Examples such as these are real and affect entire production chains with evident damage to the health of Brazilians, fair competition and the purse. In the case of cigarettes, the most smuggled product in Brazil, for example, losses from tax evasion reached almost R $ 10 billion in 2017.
In addition to bleeding in the public coffers, companies that work with legality are directly affected and need to adjust to this reality; in other words, the illegal market removes investments and takes jobs and income from Brazilians, directly affecting the generation of wealth in the country.
The big knot of the matter is that the inspection of the illegal market is very deficient, a situation worsened by the excess of changes and new rules, which brings legal uncertainty and can modify the jurisprudence of the courts, generating many doubts in the conduct of business. It would be difficult to monitor an environment of clear and perennial rules. What about a situation where the rules change all the time?
To enter the path of sustainable development, Brazil does not need new laws at all times; it needs much more institutional tranquility, strict controls and greater supervision. The legal market and the Brazilian consumer deserve respect.
