The National Customs Directorate (DNA) published a report establishing that in the first eleven months of the year, 13.2 million dollars were seized, translated into a total of 7,000 operations; meanwhile, they proposed the implementation of double control At the end of the year.
According to the DNA report, during the third quarter of the year, seizures amounting to 466.7 million dollars were made. However, the Special Border Commission with the Argentine Republic met with the Special Border Commission with the Federative Republic of Brazil in a presentation where the president of the Brazilian commission, Jaime Borgiani, updated the data.
In that sense, he highlighted that in recent months a substantial increase was observed. “We were at a level of between 300 and 400 precautions and, in November, we reached 1,100. In all administrations -Fray Bentos, Paysandú and Salto- The behavior was an increase of almost 100%. There was also an increase in the amounts,” he explained. Borgiani.
Meanwhile, among the main seizures were, firstly, foodstuffs, which accounted for 28% of the total. In second place are cosmetics and cleaning products with 26%, third place is occupied by clothing with 18%. This is followed by beverages with 8% and household items with 5%. In addition, medicines, spare parts, proteins and sports supplements, as well as footwear, vehicles and construction, were retained.
Double the number of controls by the end of the year
In the context of end-of-year celebrations, the commission decided, together with the Ministry of Interior, duplicate controls at customs. Unlike this year, where seizures were equivalent to 13.2 million dollars, last year it was 21 million. Besides, Borgiani He explained that the majority of seizures do not belong to private vehicles, but correspond to buses and trucks that cross the border.
“We already have people in the area, mainly on the border with Argentina, doing intelligence tasks. To the extent that officials are entering, we are trying to reinforce, with personnel, the bridges and administrations that were more sensitive precisely due to lack of personnel,” he explained.
However, there is a phenomenon that customs cannot control and that is the fact that Uruguayans They cross the border to walk, sleep in hotels and eat in the most expensive restaurants in Buenos Aires because the exchange rate suits you.
“Customs can’t do anything about that. It is an expense that is incurred because there is a country where it is cheap, and the tourist goes and consumes. The majority of consumption is what gives that sum. He smuggling it is not the tourist’s expense; smuggling comes through the movement of other people,” he remarked.
A problem with history that reached a peak
Although the smuggling on the border—both with Argentina as with Brazil- It is a historical problem present at the country’s land crossings, the exchange difference generated from the devaluation of the Argentine peso has deepened the worrying situation. Thus, it is no longer observed only in store products or in cigarettes and alcoholic beverages—traditionally expensive goods in Uruguay-; but also in meats and even medicines.
Faced with this, and based on the claim of workers from the coastal departments – those most affected by the drop in sales and the “unfair competition” they suffer from the products that enter the national territory by contraband -, the government ordered the implementation of a double control on the border of Salto to intensify surveillance over these possible practices, with a second position in the headquarters of the Republican Guard.
Meanwhile in Leap and Paysandu have already demanded measures such as the authorization of microimports, regulation of fuel prices and tax intervention from the central government through discounts on VAT and Imesi in products from the basic family basket.
Between January and September, the Customs unwary more than 450 million pesos in products that attempted to be entered illegally into Uruguay. Groceries and cleaning products were the most common.
Source: Ambito
