The National Chamber of Sugar and Alcohol Industries (CNIAA) denounced that for two years 100,000 tons of sugar have been classified as “mixtures of flours” or “food preparations consisting of mixtures of sugar with activated carbon” to evade the payment of tariffs. through the Guatemalan customs.
“It is not possible for sugar with activated carbon to be classified as a food preparation for the sole purpose of entering our country free of duty from Guatemala,” declared Humberto Jasso Torres, executive president of the CNIAA.
“Sugar with activated carbon is clearly toxic and has to be processed in liquid sugar factories or others, that is why we ask that the authority investigate thoroughly and act with the full force of the law along the entire chain of possible illegality” , said the businessman.
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According to the Chamber, the official import figures for Guatemala show a dramatic increase of almost 100,000 tons per year of sugar with activated carbon in the last two years.
He added that the smuggling of sugar with activated carbon explains the fall in national sales of sugar mills from a level of 4.04 million tons in the 2019/20 cycle to only 3.9 million tons in the 2020/21 cycle.
Tax evasion caused by technical sugar smuggling, considering surcharges and fines, reaches 4,000 million pesos, commented Humberto Jasso Torres.
Additionally, the damage to the sugarcane agribusiness sector is certainly much greater, because it affects the finances of the 49 mills that employ more than 185,000 sugarcane growers and the rural employment chain, added the sugar producer.
The National Committee for the Sustainable Development of Sugar Cane (Conadesuca) revealed that there was a 4% drop in national sales of sugar mills for the cycle that ran from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021.
“The unjustified attacks against cane sugar for health reasons have caused a drop in per capita consumption of 2% per year in Mexico,” said Jasso Torres.
“If the population grows by 1.5%, total consumption falls 0.5%, but this phenomenon of a 4% drop in sugar mill sales is not due to a drop in consumption, but to a very strong technical smuggling that is replacing the national production, “said the Mexican businessman.
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The CNIAA leader indicated that an investigation by the Tax Administration Service (SAT) has already been requested from the General Administration of Customs (AGA) and the Ministry of Economy to stop and sanction the smuggling of sugar with activated carbon across the border of Guatemala .
“We want to thank the support we have received from the authorities, since they have dedicated a lot of time and effort to assist us: given the seriousness of the problem that implies a drop in sales of 4% nationally, it becomes truly critical and urgent that the problem be resolved soon and from the root ”, emphasized Jasso Torres.
The national agribusiness of cane sugar generates half a million direct jobs and 2.4 million indirect jobs, in 267 rural municipalities located in 15 states of the country, where more than 15 million Mexicans live and the sugar activity is a fundamental engine throughout the local economy.
“In the 2021/2022 cycle, which we are beginning, it can be very complicated by technical smuggling and the precipitous fall in the national price, so we need the support that the federal government is giving us,” concluded Humberto Jasso Torres.