In recent days, tax auditors from the Federal Revenue have intensified their demonstrations against the 51% cut in the agency's budget, the non-payment of salary bonuses and the lack of competitions to replenish the staff. To put pressure on the government and attract public attention, tax auditors increased the sampling of shipments checked at airports and ports.
As a result, express shipments, which should be released within 24 hours, are taking four to five days to be released. According to the Brazilian Association of International Express Cargo Transport Companies (Abraec), the express cargo transport sector is facing an increase in operating costs, because they need to pay daily fees for shipments that are stored in customs warehouses until their release.
“The accumulation of cargo is large, especially at Viracopos and Guarulhos airports,” said Abraec’s executive director, Vagner Battaglioli.
GRU Airport, which manages Guarulhos airport, and RIOGaleão, which manages Rio's international airport, did not comment and suggested speaking to the IRS. Viracopos airport did not respond to an interview request. The IRS said it will not comment on the matter.
Abraec has already sent letters to the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, the Minister of the Civil House, Ciro Nogueira, to the special secretary of the Federal Revenue, tax auditor Julio Cesar Vieira Gomes, informing about the difficulties faced by the companies.
“The situation is unsustainable. And the tendency is for tax auditors to further increase the time for releasing cargo. This affects companies in all sectors,” said Battaglioli. The Ministry of Economy declined to comment on the matter.
On the 8th, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) recognized the legality of the payment of efficiency and productivity bonuses to civil servants in the tax and customs careers of the Federal Revenue Service and the Labor Tax Audit. The judgment rejected a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) filed by the Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras. The government still needs to publish a decree validating the payment of the bonus. If this happens, the mobilization of tax auditors may slow down.
But mobilization is not limited to standard customs operations. In recent weeks, mobilizations of tax auditors have been recorded at major airports in the country. On another front, a group of approximately 5,000 tax auditors refused to take on leadership positions at the IRS because of the teams' precarious working conditions. The Ministry of Economy refused to hand over the positions and hundreds of auditors are now going to court to enforce their decision.
“Inland Revenue suffered a budget cut of R$ 1.2 billion. The current budget is enough to operate for five months. With a restriction of this size, managers have to deactivate many projects. It is this situation that led the civil servants to hand over their leadership positions. The situation is becoming unmanageable”, stated the president of the National Union of Tax Auditors of the Federal Revenue Service (Sindifisco Nacional), Isac Falcão.
Another problem mentioned is the lack of public competitions to replace the number of civil servants who retired or left their positions. Falcão said that the number of servers has suffered a reduction of 40% in recent years.
Sindifisco Nacional calculates that the reduction in audits carried out by the Revenue could cause an annual loss of R$ 9 billion to the public coffers. The value relates to the recovery of undue credits. In 2021, tax auditors managed to prevent the loss of R$ 22.4 billion to public coffers due to companies improperly claiming tax credits.
But with a smaller number of employees and a reduced budget, there has been a drop in the number of audits carried out. In January, there was a reduction of 65.3% in audits to check the validity of credits, causing a reduction of 40.6% in credit cancellations (credit cancellations), compared to the same month in 2021. According to Falcão, if there is no change in the current scenario, the loss for the year could reach R$ 9 billion.
Also according to the union, other problems arising from the lack of personnel and the drop in the budget are likely to follow, such as the halt in the analysis of requests for credit qualifications resulting from court decisions and advance reimbursements.
By Cibelle Bouças — From Belo Horizonte
21/03/2022
Source: Valor Econômico
