Five years after the creation of AFIP, AduanaNews contacted the President of the Economic Commission of the Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Nation, Guillermo Corfield; who presented a bill to seek the dissolution of the Federal Administration of Public Revenues, to return to the old structure of Customs and DGI. The Deputy stated the reasons that call for such an objective, as well as referring to the recent procedure carried out in Customs by the National Justice in Economic Criminal Matters, among other very interesting topics.
Asked about his opinion of the AFIP and its eventual restructuring, he said: "The gains in quality, effectiveness and efficiency that were intended with the creation of the AFIP did not materialize due to an administrative reality that shows bureaucratic factors and, furthermore, this did not contribute to greater flexibility and synchronization, neither of its structure nor of the control procedures, in the face of the profound dynamics of change and adaptation that customs and tax fraud shows. It is therefore necessary to propose institutional reforms and corrective measures aimed at strengthening and prioritizing customs and tax services, with a new model for the prevention and control of tax and customs fraud from an organization other than the current Federal Public Revenue Administration (AFIP), which unsuccessfully attempted to integrate management and inspection functions in customs and tax matters under a single sphere. and echoing a well-known axiom that says, "A tax system is worth what the Administration in charge of applying it is worth"; as to what would be today's disadvantages of the current structure of customs under the AFIP, he maintained the need to generate provisions related to the administrative autonomy of customs, taking into account that to date it has a relationship of direct dependence with the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP), it also generates delays and administrative bureaucracy in its actions. Addressing a current issue, in relation to the recent procedure that the Economic Criminal Justice carried out in Customs offices, he said: "The Economic Commission has within its competence the treatment of everything related to the customs issue, and during the previous period and the current period, different studies have been developed in which the problem of fraud in customs is analyzed. To Dr. Cruciani (Judge in Economic Criminal Matters), provided a summary of all the studies carried out by the commission, where in detail, there are clear and precise arguments referring to temporary imports, a system through which the judge has carried out procedures with raids at the central headquarters of Customs, in search of documentation on alleged frauds to the treasury through these imports. In the interview (with Judge Cruciani), he was informed that there were different precedents of presentations made by national deputies to the oversight bodies, in order to promote the investigations that should be carried out, with respect to this issue. This same compendium of information regarding customs fraud was duly delivered to former administrator Eduardo Cassullo, former administrator Albrisi and current administrator Mario Das Neves, as soon as he took office. Adding that At the meeting (with Dr. Cruciani) discussed the various effects that customs fraud brings about, both economic, legal, ethical and social; we do not rule out that the growth of the public deficit also has negative effects of all kinds. Legal, based on the fact that customs offences are a violation of the Customs Code, with the appearance of fraudulent conduct as a way of emptying the content of the legal norm; and ethical and social, since it has a negative effect in the first instance through the crimes and infractions committed and contributes to diluting the set of collective values, where there is a selfish attitude of non-compliance, based on a personal and private benefit to the detriment of the compliant individual and the collective benefit. He also stated that "...the commission gave its full support to Judge Cruciani in everything related to the fight against this scourge that is customs fraud, and, in addition, we are at his disposal for all the information and studies, in the presence of this commission, that he requires." Regarding the need to seek greater corrective control systems, he stressed that "the need to take corrective measures that allow proper control of postal shipments for commercial purposes is inexcusable; there should be no privileges before the customs service and, for import or export destinations that are formalized, the DGA must correctly determine the legal regime established by the Customs Code. Therefore, it is seen as essential to formalize the customs destinations that support them through the Maria Computer System (SIM), so that a unified control of the international traffic of goods and of the statistics of international trade can be exercised and not to repeat the problems that occurred in the past when more than one computer system coexisted. Finally, he pointed out that in a meeting with the Director General of Customs, Mario Das Neves, he discussed "the excessive administrative bureaucracy, high service costs, unnecessary obstacles in the release of goods held in their warehouses, as well as the initiative embodied in Decree No. 59 of this year from the National Executive Branch"; expressing his support for "this initiative, provided that all administrative procedures are followed to ensure its implementation," noting that "the legislators present, in agreement with the proposal, decided to advance a bill, which the presidency made available to them."
At the end, the President of the Economic Commission of the Honorable Chamber of Deputies of the Nation, made available to AduanaNews the following bills related to the subject:
1) DISSOLUTION OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC REVENUE ADMINISTRATION
2) CUSTOMS DELAYS
3) POSTAL/COURRIERS SERVICE
Aduana News is the first Argentine customs newspaper to launch its digital version. With 20 years of experience, its publications and initiatives aim to provide the most relevant knowledge on customs issues in order to contribute to safe trade in the region.
