The General Directorate of Customs (DGA) denounced an underinvoicing maneuver in the export of lithium carbonate that between 2018 and 2019 generated a loss of US$ 8 million in export duties and applied a fine of US$ 8 million to the company involved in the operations. $7 billion.
The maneuver includes “more than 400 export operations carried out by an Argentine company to a related company abroad,” reported the body led by Guillermo Michel. DGA sources told Télam that it is an “infractional fine” and that it is being carried out “still in the administrative headquarters.”
The Argentine company -which for procedural reasons cannot yet be identified- “It exported to its related company abroad at values substantially lower than market estimates and those used by another comparable exporter,” the DGA specified in its complaint.
The agency determined the current values for lithium carbonate by comparing the prices of identical goods or similar, documented by an exporter in a similar market position, in terms of commercial capacity, approximate time of export and destination.
“As a result of such a comparison, it is found that the prices declared by another comparable exporter are substantially higher, on average 103% to 122%at the prices declared by the company” observed, detailed the Customs in a statement.
Likewise, it was pondered that the prices declared by the comparable operator follow the evolution of the international prices of lithium carbonate, obtained from specialized pages in compiling international transaction prices and by reports from the Ministry of Mining and the Rosario Stock Exchange, in addition to being similar to those declared for identical or similar merchandise before the Chilean Customs.
With this information, the DGA concluded that “the transaction prices declared by the Argentine company are influenced by the relationship between the parties and do not meet the condition of being current or market securities“.
“In other words, the denounced company underinvoiced its exports to the related company abroad,” he said.
After verifying the illicit, the Customs notified the value studies to the company and demanded export duties for US$8 million, for the difference in taxes between what he paid and what he should have paid, in addition to applying a fine of $7,000 millionbased on the provisions of paragraphs a) and c) of article 954 of the Customs Code.
