The smuggling of goods from Paraguay has reached a dimension that today threatens the sustainability of several sectors of the formal economy. And the causes of this phenomenon are widely known: the porosity of our borders and the huge tax disparity between the two countries.

The main example of this problem is cigarette smuggling. Currently, 67% of all products that enter Brazil illegally are cigarettes, and São Paulo has become the main market for criminals, with 4 out of 10 cigarettes sold in the state being imported illegally from Paraguay. It is incomprehensible that in the richest state of the federation, Eight, the leading sales brand and which dominates 25% of sales, is manufactured in the neighboring country.

Without employing any São Paulo worker. Increasing the population's insecurity and violence. Without complying with any of the phytosanitary regulations provided for by law. And without collecting any cent of taxes from public coffers. The damage of smuggling to society is increasingly known, and can no longer be ignored by the authorities.

As a reaction to these problems, the business coalition represented here by FNCP and ETCO, in partnership with the Parliamentary Front to Combat Smuggling, proposes and demands from public authorities, within the scope of the State of São Paulo, the creation of a State Plan to face this serious problem, which includes:

1. Recalibrate the state tax rate (ICMS) levied on products, notably cigarettes sold in São Paulo to protect the formal market, reduce the impact on State revenue and maintain the investment capacity of the production chain (credit, structure, level of employment , etc.)
2. Repression of criminal organizations that exploit the illegal market in the State of São Paulo
3. Public campaigns and educational actions in the most affected communities and retail chain in the State of São Paulo.
4. Punishment, with the same rigor and with integrated work, of national companies that cause tax evasion as an instrument of practice of predatory price, below the legal minimum price.
5. Integrated work with other public bodies and entities (eg: ANVISA) to curb the trade in unauthorized products that harm public health policy.

It is no longer possible for the state's population to be forced to live with the constant and unbridled growth of smuggling. It is necessary that our leaders have the necessary vision and courage to change this situation. This is the appeal of the productive sectors gathered here, who just want to operate in a market free from unfair contraband competition, in defense of the Brazilian legal market.

Read here the Security and development manifesto