By ARACY PS BALBANI*
Do Brazilian society and its legislative representatives not care about tax evasion and the loopholes for corruption and the practice of occasional rachadinhas?
Many people chose to alienate themselves from political life during the 2024 municipal election campaign. They sat on the fence in conversations with the electorate, criticized the candidates indiscriminately, often without even knowing them all, or abstained from voting.
Citizens who declared themselves voters for reelected mayors, after suffering dissatisfaction with the quality of the municipal public services they needed, just over 48 hours after the end of the count began to complain... about the popular choices in the electronic ballot box.
Progressive blogs often provide space for experienced scholars to discuss the costs of Brazil's public debt, which has never been audited, and of the Armed Forces personnel, especially the payment of military retirements and pensions and the acquisition of penile prostheses, eroding the budget allocated to national defense.
It is interesting that neither the conservative news outlets (open TV and radio stations, newspapers, old weekly magazines) nor the progressive electronic outlets addressed three topics pertinent to the discussion about the balance of the federal government's accounts: the return of the CPFM tax, the activities of the Administrative Council of Tax Appeals (CARF) – an agency linked to the Ministry of Finance that acts in disputes of a tax or customs nature – and the action of the National Supplementary Health Agency (ANS) to reimburse the SUS for the services it provides to users of private health plan operators.
According to the Senate Agency, the Provisional Contribution on Financial Transactions (CPMF) was “a charge that was levied on all bank transactions – except for stock trading on the Stock Exchange, withdrawals of pensions, unemployment insurance, salaries and transfers between current accounts with the same holder – and was in force in Brazil for 11 years”.
“At the end of 2000, the government decided to allow the cross-referencing of banking information with taxpayers’ Income Tax returns, in order to identify discrepancies between amounts declared to the Federal Revenue Service and the movement of money in banks and possible fraud.”
Also according to the Senate Agency, "the contribution was extended several times. In October 2007, the Chamber approved a proposal that extended the CPMF collection until 2011, but the initiative was defeated in the Senate two months later. At the time, the government claimed that the end of the CPMF would result in a loss of revenue of around R$40 billion in 2008.
From 1997 to 2007, the CPMF collected R$223 billion. In 2007, the last year the contribution was in force, R$37,2 billion was collected, according to a report released by the Federal Revenue Service.
The growth in revenue generated by the CPMF between 1998 and 2006 was 216,1%, while the amount of taxes administered by the Federal Revenue Service increased by 78,4% in the same period, in real terms”.
In 2024, when the financial market and its spokespeople demand that the Federal Government impose austerity measures on the Brazilian people, and companies of all sizes insist on cashing checks, even those for large amounts, at the cashier's desk, disregarding the banking technologies of Ted and Pix, why not resume the definitive collection of the CPMF?
On this subject, it is natural to ask: where does the issue of business ethics lie? Do Brazilian society and its legislative representatives not care about tax evasion and the loopholes for corruption and the practice of occasional kickbacks?
CARF was the target of the Federal Police's Operation Zelotes, launched in 2015 to investigate allegations of a corruption scheme aimed at canceling tax fines applied to large companies. The initial estimated losses from the fraud reached R$19 billion.
Almost a decade later, what has been proven? Who was punished? Did the Federal Government's coffers actually receive the taxes owed by the companies investigated in Operation Zelotes?
According to the ANS, the Agency “receives from the SUS Information Technology Department (DATASUS) the database with information on services provided within the SUS network and checks this information against its database of health plan beneficiaries. After checking, once it has identified which beneficiaries used SUS services, notifications, called Identified Beneficiary Notice (ABI), are sent to the health plan operators so that they can pay the amounts determined or present a defense.”
The reimbursement mechanism is intended to force private health insurance providers to provide users with the services covered by the contract. Otherwise, they keep the short end of the stick (the monthly fees paid by users) and leave the meat to the SUS and all taxpayers to chew on. The question is: has this reimbursement been done adequately?
Given all this that involves public accounts and is very unclear, after the tax meter and the tax evasion meter, it is clear that it would be urgent to install a hypocrisometer in Brazil. Preferably, under civil control, robust and tamper-proof.
*Aracy PS Balbani is an otorhinolaryngologist. She works as a specialist exclusively in the SUS in the interior of São Paulo..
References
Senate Agency. CPMF. Available at https://www12.senado.leg.br/noticias/entenda-o-assunto/cpmf
National Supplementary Health Agency. SUS Reimbursement Area. Available at https://www.gov.br/ans/pt-br/assuntos/operadoras/compromissos-e-interacoes-com-a-ans-1/espaco-ressarcimento-ao-sus-1
National Supplementary Health Agency. Financial aspects of reimbursement to the SUS: Guidelines on collection procedures. 2018. Available at https://www.gov.br/ans/pt-br/arquivos/acesso-a-informacao/perfil-do-setor/dados-e-indicadores-do-setor/dados-e-publicacoes-do-ressarcimento-ao-sus/cartilha_aspectos_financeiros_do_ressarcimento_ao_sus.pdf
Federal Government. Open Data. Historical percentage of collection (%hc) of reimbursement to the SUS. Available at
https://dados.gov.br/dados/conjuntos-dados/percentual-historico-de-cobranca-hc-do-ressarcimento-ao-sus Ministry of Health. National Supplementary Health Agency. Normative Instruction – in No. 25, of April 29, 2022. Provides for the accounting of amounts due for Reimbursement to the SUS in the ANS Standard Chart of Accounts. Available at https://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/saudelegis/ans/2022/int0025_04_05_2022.html
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