The Argentine customs service specified in a report on Tuesday (11.04.2023/XNUMX/XNUMX) the sectors that tend towards under-invoicing of exports so far this year.
In the risk analyses carried out during 2023, "it has been detected 3.376 cases of export under-invoicing meat, beans, medicines, sugar, fats, oils, meat flour, bones, skins, hides, garlic, onions, olives, sorghum, pellet flour, chemicals, mechanical devices, fishing, hake and soybean expellers," according to the report from the National Customs Directorate.
“Specifically, Customs warns Overbilling of USD 73.921.273,61 in exports,” the report adds..
In this report, which lists the incidents that occurred this year, the Argentine customs service acknowledges that, of the operations in question, declared at USD 227.411.185,46, Nearly 1 in every 4 dollars from the maneuvers studied “did not enter the country properly.”
La greater irregularity It corresponds to fats and oils category, which declared 357 operations worth USD 20.359.934,05. However, based on database analysis and cross-checking information with other customs offices around the world, the agency headed by Guillermo Michel has found a difference of USD 16.185.128,74 that was not properly recorded in exports and that surprised those who analyzed them because it represented “under-invoicing of 44%", the report says.
Furthermore, Customs considers that la largest gap in percentage terms corresponds to the heading included by chemicals and mechanical devices which, having recorded 70 transactions for a value of USD 3.565.752,80, failed to recognise the invoicing of USD 12.086.277,71: an under-invoicing of 77%.
The regularity of these maneuvers led Customs risk analysts to note patterns of behavior that are replicated from one operator to another and that include undesirable practices such as harmful triangulations and fraudulent successive sales.
The report states: “The operations tend to use a single (or main) client, in order to simulate a triangular international sale and purchase, thereby justifying the substantial difference between the prices recorded in Argentina and in the countries of destination of the goods.” It also maintains that “the improper maneuver results in a considerably lower liquidation of foreign currency.”
The National Customs Directorate is trying to warn merchants about customs illegality and determined some of the risk indicators developed based on the systemic analysis carried out.
In detail:
- Intervention of a third operator lacking economic substance who, in most cases, turns out to be the only client of the Argentine exporter.
- Margins on intermediary operations that are extremely disproportionate to normal business practices.
- International purchase and sale prices divorced from market trends, with substantial differences from the values observed in comparable transactions —or even from the official prices established by the Argentine State for exports.
- Lack of declaration of links between the companies involved in the transaction.
- Inability to justify the intervention of a third operator, given the history of direct sales by the Argentine operator to the same clients with whom, at a given time, it begins to operate indirectly.
- Participation of exporters who do not meet the requirements of financial solvency and, even so, register short-term operations with significant volumes and amounts that do not correspond to their financial capacity.
Thus, the General Directorate of Customs has designed a risk matrix that allows it to detect irregular operations, "which has resulted in numerous complaints contentious - filed in administrative headquarters - and even criminal - in the judicial sphere," the organization said at the end of the report.
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