The National Chamber of the Sugar and Alcohol Industry (CNIAA) reported the unusual drop of 4% in national sales of sugar mills in the cycle that includes from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021; Therefore, they estimate that this behavior is due to the fact that smuggled sugar is entering the country and does not contribute tariffs on imports.
According to the CNIAA report, the Customs is classifying sugar as “mixtures of flours” or “food preparations that consist of mixtures of sugar with activated carbon”, to evade the payment of tariffs, and thus enter free sugar tariff to the country.
The report of the fall was presented last week by Conadesuca, an organism attached to the Ministry of Agriculture, (Sader), Humberto Jasso Torres, Executive President of the CNIAA said that “the unjustified attacks against cane sugar for health reasons come causing a drop in per capita consumption of 2% per year in Mexico, which means that, if the population grows by 1.5%, total consumption falls by approximately 0.5 percent ”.
However, this phenomenon of a 4% drop in sugar mill sales is not due to the drop in consumption, but to a probable very strong “technical smuggling” that is replacing national production, a phenomenon that “we have already requested for months it is investigated and sanctioned by the Customs authorities, various areas of the SAT and the Ministry of Economy, “he said.
Jasso Torres explained that “it is not possible for sugar with activated carbon to be classified as a food preparation for the sole purpose of entering our country duty-free from Guatemala, when said product is clearly toxic and has to be processed in liquid sugar factories or others, that is why we ask the Authority to investigate thoroughly and act with the full force of the Law throughout the entire chain of possible illegality ”.
The Sugar Chamber indicated that Guatemala’s official import figures show a dramatic increase of almost 100,000 tons per year in this type of product in the last two years.
According to available public information, the CNIAA estimates that tax evasion caused by technical smuggling of sugar, considering surcharges and fines, may exceed 4,000 million pesos.
It should be remembered that the national cane sugar agribusiness generates half a million direct jobs and 2.4 million indirect jobs.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx