Saturday, February 11, 2023 | 7:39 p.m.
The General Directorate of Customs (DGA) detected under-invoicing maneuvers in 523 shipment permits for beef exports for US$11,908,320 in the period 2021-2022, with some 22 exporting refrigerators involved, according to a report from the agency published this Saturday. .
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, details the Customs survey.
Regarding the modus operandi, from the DGA they explained that “the merchandise is shipped directly from Argentina to Brazil, but in between the operation is re-invoiced from a trader in Cyprus or the United States that does not add anything to the final product but adds one” commission’ of 30% to the operation”.
“This difference is an irregular utility of the Argentine refrigerator that leaves it abroad to avoid liquidating the dollars in the Central Bank (BCRA) and to reduce export duties and evade income tax,” they added.
The detection of irregularities arises from the different information exchange agreements to which the DGA is adhering together with other foreign customs, such as “the Indira system-Customs Registries Information Exchange System for Mercosur”, specified the organism.
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.
Outlook 2022
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.
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” cow D and E; 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 on 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 Entre Ríos (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 climbed to $1,018.4 million, with an increase of 667% compared to the previous semester.
