The Permanent Commission of Congress held a working table to draft a bill to combat informality and illegality (smuggling). Or, at least, the modification of the current legislation. It was chaired by Lilian Samaniego, president of said commission, the meeting was held in the Senate session room.
The representatives of various institutions attended, who approached their proposals in relation to the legislative project.
One of them was Alberto Sborovsky, president of the Paraguayan Chamber of Supermarkets (Capasu), the businessman pointed to the legal loopholes of each institution. He urged that each one say what is the limitation they have to fight head-on against this scourge.
“Precisely the idea is to see what is missing within what already exists to enhance what is not there, to build on the foundations of an institution, that each one brings its proposal on how to improve,” he explained.
He urged the representatives of the Secretariat for the Prevention of Money Laundering (Seprelad) to be part of the meetings because smuggling and money laundering are often closely linked.
CUSTOMS
Giselle Lampert, legal director of the National Customs Directorate was another of the guests. He stated that they are working on customs infractions to more successfully combat smuggling.
“It is being discussed with members of the IPU and importers, we want to add catalogs of conduct and increase the criminal rate in all cases. Not only those related to products of animal origin ”, he expressed.
Paula Carro, from the Paraguayan Industrial Union (UIP), echoed Sborovsky’s statements. He pointed out that the first thing will be to make a situational diagnosis where each institution reports its weaknesses.
“Once we have that diagnosis, we can advance in the design of transversal measures,” he said.
SPECIFIC ORDER
One of the few participants who already made specific changes was Sonia Silvera, director of the legal department of the Ministry of Labor. It stated that, in order to ensure the labor laws, they propose the modification of article 385 of the Labor Code.
Silvera explained that the article establishes the infractions of the Labor Code that lack penalties will be punished with fines of between 10 to 30 minimum wages, but only to those who fall into recidivism.
“There is talk of a one-year recidivism. What we want to apply is the suppression of this figure ”, he commented.
SAMANIEGO
At the end of the day, Lilian Samaniego, in a press conference, reported that they are analyzing submitting amendments to existing laws or new projects. In order to toughen the penalties for people and companies that operate with contraband products.
“Last week we started the series of meetings, and we are going to reach a general regulation. A consensual tool. We are talking about very large sums of money. Customs specify which are the gray areas where they proliferate, “he said.
The legislator reported that there are public institutions, whose legal regulations even date back to the 1960s. Therefore, the requirement to update these laws.
