On Friday morning (10), the Federal Revenue Service released the final balance of the operation carried out in 10 stores against the sale of counterfeit products in Teresina. According to deputy André Santos, the teams seized around BRL 5 million in pirated goods.
"We seized a volume equivalent to eight truckloads of goods, which have already been sent to warehouses. The economic value of these goods is around BRL 5 million, which would be an estimated value of the cost of these goods if they were sold on this illegal market," explained the Federal Revenue agent in Teresina.
According to the report, the products seized, such as toys and electronics, were not certified by the National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology (Inmetro) or the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), posing a risk to consumers.
"We seized clothing products, toys without the Inmetro seal, some electronics such as cell phone chargers without Anatel certification, products that pose a risk in the case of toys for children and in the case of electronics, risks of damage to health, which can cause an explosion, undue emission of radiation, we also seized a very large quantity of electronic cigarettes and counterfeit shoes that do not represent the brand holder," added the deputy.
Deputy André Santos also pointed out that the counterfeit goods will be destroyed, since they can no longer be put into circulation, apart from a few exceptions in which the products can be de-characterized.
"These counterfeit goods and those without Inmetro and Anatel certification are products that can no longer circulate, so they are not used for charity bazaars or for donations, apart from a few exceptions in which the Federal Revenue, in partnership with a charity, manages to de-characterize the manufacturer's brand and we manage to put that merchandise to some useful use," he said.
The Federal Revenue delegate also explained that the operation is the result of an inspection and monitoring of goods arriving in the country and that in all ten stores targeted by the action, the existence of counterfeit products was verified.
"This is a constant work of the Federal Revenue Service, this inspection and monitoring of goods. There is both internal research work by the Receita itself and we receive a lot of complaints, so this goes through a filter and the actions are prioritized. So there's this internal planning of ours that leads to this type of operation and brings about this type of result. In the case of this operation, there were ten companies, ten selected targets, all the targets were hit and the goods were confirmed that they really were fake, illegal products and they were all seized," said André Santos.
The Civil Police will be responsible for holding the store owners criminally responsible by opening a police investigation. The Federal Revenue Service will also impose a fine based on the amounts and quantities seized in each establishment.
"It's not the job of the Federal Revenue to investigate or conduct a police inquiry into these crimes," said the delegate.
Deputy André Santos also clarified that the work of the operation carried out yesterday (09) in Teresina has been finalized by the Federal Revenue Service, but that other actions may be launched to curb this illegal practice.
"The work of the Receita is not limited to this operation, it doesn't stop here. This operation on the part of the Revenue Service has been concluded, but the planning continues and it may be that on other occasions we will have similar operations like this, it will depend on the result that this will cause, if they stop doing this type of illegal activity in the city," said André Santos.
The operation was carried out by the Division for Surveillance and Repression of Smuggling and Embezzlement of the 3rd Region of the Federal Revenue Service, with the aim of combating counterfeiting, embezzlement and smuggling of goods.
"The Federal Revenue Service in the 3rd tax region, which covers the states of Maranhão, Piauí and Ceará, has a division for combating smuggling and this division did all the coordination, planning and intelligence. The focus of this operation was to combat counterfeiting, smuggling and misappropriation of goods. So the idea was to remove from circulation products that are counterfeit, that don't represent the real brand," said the deputy.