The Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) informed the Brazil Agency which negotiates with the Ministry of Management and Innovation (MGI) the creation of more than 100 commission positions “which should be made available soon” to reinforce the structure of the National Mining Agency (ANM) and assist in the fight against billion-dollar tax evasion. taxes from the mineral sector identified by the Federal Audit Court (TCU).
Furthermore, the ministry recalled that a public competition was authorized to fill 220 positions at ANM. According to MGI Ordinance 4,596, the Mining Agency has until January 16, 2025 to publish the competition notice.
It is estimated that the Brazilian State stopped collecting – in eight years – around R$16.4 billion in mining taxes due to failures in the inspection and collection of taxes in the sector, responsibilities of the ANM. In this scenario, the TCU demanded that the ANM adopt measures and actions to minimize the problem of tax evasion in mining.
The TCU ruling points out that almost 70% of the more than 30,000 active mining processes did not spontaneously pay the Financial Compensation for the Exploration of Mineral Resources (Cfem) between 2017 and 2022. Furthermore, of 134 processes supervised by the ANM, only 40% paid the due tax, which is done through self-declaration by the mining companies.
Relevant
According to the MME, the TCU’s inspection was “relevant and adequate” and cited that the ANM was created in 2017 with the promise of having sufficient structure to carry out its activities.
“Contrary to what was promised, the scenario that emerged at the beginning of 2023 was that civil servants’ salaries were incompatible with those of other regulatory agencies, a shortage of public civil servants, commission positions incompatible with the civil servants’ responsibilities and a lack of adequate budget ”, informed the ministry.
Before becoming a regulatory agency, the mining inspection structure was a department within the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
The MME also highlighted that the government changed, still in 2023, the ANM Position Plan to equate civil servants’ salaries with those of other regulatory agencies. “Salaries at ANM were between 40% and 60% lower than those practiced in other agencies,” said the ministry.
Furthermore, the government authorized in the first half of 2023 the appointment of 64 new specialists in mineral resources to work in dam inspection. “Such actions represent a significant reinforcement of ANM’s ability to regulate and supervise the Brazilian mineral sector,” added the ministry.
He also promised to comply with TCU’s recommendation and produce, within 180 days, studies to define priorities and objectives to adapt ANM’s budget with an action plan to solve or reduce the difficulties faced by the entity.
“The MME reinforces its commitment to structuring the ANM, in particular to guarantee the efficiency of the mineral concession in terms of generating jobs, income, generating value for the community where mining takes place, safety and sustainability”, concluded the ministry, in notice.
Disassemble
The TCU investigation identified that the National Mining Agency has been going through a process of reducing servers and a drop in inspections of the mineral sector, in addition to pointing out flaws in process automation issues that limit inspection and allow the mineral business sector to evade billions of reais in taxes every year.
Between 2010 and 2023, the staff inherited by ANM was reduced from 1,196 to 695 employees, that is, a 41.9% drop in the workforce. In parallel, the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU) calculated a 92% drop in the number of inspections carried out by the ANM. Of 2,184 Cfem inspections in 2014, ANM carried out only 173 inspections in 2019.
The minister reporting the process at the TCU, Benjamin Zymler, concluded that mining revenue essentially depends on the good faith of companies. “However, there are no instruments to persuade them, since the ANM’s supervisory structure is incapable of generating the expectation of control in the regulated sector and, even after the few inspections, no effective collection is achieved”, said Zymler.
