Streamlined Imports to Result in R$40 Billion Annual Savings

Scheduled to begin on October 1, the simplification of imports through the migration to the Single Foreign Trade Portal is set to save businesses R$ 40 billion per year. This information was released on Monday (30) by Tatiana Prazeres, Secretary of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade, and Services (Mdic).

The ministry estimates that increased competitiveness and reduced bureaucracy will add $130 billion to the Brazilian economy by 2040. The Single Portal replaces Siscomex, Brazil’s foreign trade registration system in place since 1993.

Launched in 2014, the platform reduces document requirements, performs processes simultaneously that used to be handled in sequence, and allows for the issuance of flex permits (authorizing multiple commercial operations by cargo volume or fixed periods).

With the new portal, instead of filling out multiple documents, companies will complete a Single Import Declaration (Duimp).

On the export side, the migration to the portal with unified declarations started in 2017 and concluded in 2018, reducing the average time for goods clearance from 13 to 4.8 days. For imports, the Duimp pilot project began in 2018, cutting the average clearance time from 17 to nine days since then.

Although the Duimp has been in place for six years, it was only applied in tests until now. According to the Mdic secretary, the complete migration of imports from Siscomex to the Single Foreign Trade Portal will further reduce the average time for foreign goods clearance from nine to five days. The new system will benefit around 50,000 importers nationwide.

“The cost of a shipment held up per day is equivalent to 0.8% of its value. Based on imports of $242 billion last year and reducing the processing time by four days (from nine to five days), we estimate savings of approximately R$ 40 billion for foreign trade businesses (about $8 billion),” Tatiana Prazeres explained.

To calculate a $130 billion boost to Gross Domestic Product (GDP, the sum of goods and services produced), the Foreign Trade Secretary noted that the Mdic assessed the benefits to other economic sectors resulting from reduced bureaucracy and lower “Brazil Cost” (production costs).

Phases

The migration of imports to the Single Portal began this Tuesday (1st) and will continue until the end of 2025. From October to December this year, the Duimp will be mandatory for maritime imports. From January to July 2025, for air shipments. From July to December next year, for imports by land borders and through the Manaus Free Trade Zone.

According to the Mdic, the Single Foreign Trade Portal has reduced the number of documents issued annually from 871,000 to 135,000. The unified declaration now requires only 38 fields, compared to 98 fields in the previous Siscomex declaration.

“Siscomex was important in the 1990s, replacing paper forms with digital documents. The Single Portal is an evolution that reduces the number of documents, digitizes the service, and allows for joint cargo inspections by Customs and other agencies,” said Robinson Barreirinhas, Special Secretary of the Federal Revenue.

Source: Agência Brasil

Click here to read the original article: https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/economia/noticia/2024-09/simplificacao-de-importacoes-resultara-em-economia-de-r-40-bi-por-ano

Sharing is caring!