The General Directorate of Customs (DGA) detected under-invoicing maneuvers in 523 shipping permits for beef exports that
allowed an evasion of US$ 11,908,320 in the period 2021-2022
, with some 22 exporting refrigerators involved.
According to a report prepared by the DGA, most of the exports had China, Chile and Brazil as their final destination, and the operations were re-invoiced through traders without economic substance in Cyprus, Uruguay, Switzerland and the United States.
The discovered maneuver consists of the fact that after the shipment of the merchandise from Argentina to Brazil, a trader in Cyprus or the United States intervenes who
re-invoices the operation
"without adding anything to the final product, but
adds a 'commission' of 30% to the operation
".
"This difference is an irregular utility of the Argentine refrigerator, which
leaves it abroad to avoid paying the dollars at the Central Bank (BCRA)
and to reduce export duties and evade income tax," they added from Customs.
The detection of irregularities arises from the different information exchange agreements to which the DGA adhered together with other foreign customs, such as the Indira-Customs Registries Information Exchange System for Mercosur.
Through Indira, Customs received information on all meat exports with Chile and Brazil, while "orders to European countries (Hilton quota) and all operations with China are already being processed through the bilateral agreement with that country," according to the report.
In 2022, meat exports for US$ 3,493 million were registered in Customs
, and the five main destination countries (China, Germany, Israel, Chile and the Netherlands) concentrate 80% of the operations.
The "exporter loop" with the preserved cow
On the other hand, the agency detailed the types of cow that are exported from Argentina and the different qualities, warning about the
"export loop" of passing regular "C" cow for preserved or "old" D and E cow
;
this is "exporting old cow but charging for regular cow", it was pointed out.
The study points out that passing off a regular "C" cow for an old or preserved "D and E" cow -which is exported completely to China- generates a double benefit because not only do they skip Senasa controls, but it also allows them to boost under-invoicing since the price of the "old cow" is justifiably lower than that of the regular cow.
"The slaughterhouses increased to 12 thousand tons (tn) the records of exports of 'old cow' in an average month, when the normal would be seven thousand; the investigation indicates that in reality these additional five thousand are regular 'C' cow" , pointed out from the DGA.
In this line, they contemplated that "in addition to under-invoicing exports and leaving dollars abroad without liquidation by the BCRA, the refrigerators deplete the local market."
The refrigerators under the Customs magnifying glass and for which "red channel alerts have already been generated for exporting curls with 'old cow'" are Login Food (550 tons per month average), Recreo (800 tons), Ruyi (700 tons) , Procesadora Ganadera Entrerriana (650 tons), Frigorífico Alberdi (430 tons) and Black Bamboo (350 tons), according to the survey.
At the beginning of January, a DGA report stated that in the second half of 2022 the charges and fines applied for these maneuvers rose to US$ 1,018.4 million, with an increase of 667% compared to the previous semester.
With information from Telam
DB
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