With SICOBE (Beverage Production Control System) deactivated for 9 years, evasion grows 86%; estimate shows that traffic earns more with illegal drinks than cocaine
Brazil lost at least R $ 88 billion reais in tax collection in one year. According to the yearbook of ABCF (Brazilian Association to Combat Falings), the value represents only the losses with evasion and falsification in the beverage sector in 2024. Here is the study (PDF – 5 MB).
The absence of traceability is a barrier to the fight against evasion. Today, the inspection depends on that of manufacturing companies. This creates a vulnerable model to tax fraud, says the yearbook.
Since 2016, Brazil has lost its ability to monitor the total volume of beverages in circulation in the national territory. It was the fault of SICOBE (Beverage Production Control System), a system created and managed by the IRS to oversee the sector’s production in real time.
Implemented in 2008, Sicobe required factories to install electronic equipment in the filling machines – as sensors and cameras – that monitored each bottle or can produced.
The information was sent to the revenue systems, allowing the intersection of data with invoices and paid taxes.
The system worked for 8 years and increased the collection by 23% only in the 1st year of operation, according to ABCF estimates. Today, it is $ 30 billion a year that the government stops raising without Sicobe.
They show that the annual average collection with drinks fell about 38% compared to the period when the system was active. A small recovery by 2019 was recorded, but the values fall consistently from 2020.
When Sicobe was fully active, the annual revenue deflated with beverages had an average of R $ 5.41 billion, with a peak of R $ 6.36 billion in 2013.
After the deactivation of Sicobe, from 2017 to 2023, the annual average retreated to R $ 3.24 billion.
The IRS says that reconnect Sicobe would cost R $ 1.8 billion a year – for a tax collection of R $ 20 billion in 2024 according to ABCF.
Of these resources not raised in the sector, R $ 56.9 billion were for illicit revenues linked to organized crime, according to data from FBSP (Brazilian Public Security Forum).
The number is 224% higher than in 2017 – a year after Sicobe is turned off. Check out the (PDF – 2.9 MB).
The situation worsened to the point that criminal organizations profit more with falsified drink trafficking, says the FBSP.
Rodolpho Ramazzini, director of ABCF, says the goal is not to defend Sicobe, but to ensure compliance with.
The standard determines that the inspection should cover from factories to border points, ports, airports, deposits and transport places. However, without SICOBE, the sector states that there is a vacuum between what the law determines and what happens in practice.
Here are the numbers of the illegal drink market in Brazil, according to ABCF:
- Dominates 36% of the spirits market;
- About 36% of the volume of counterfeit and smuggled products reach consumers on e-commerce platforms;
- Seizures of counterfeit drinks increased 86.8% by 2024;
- Losses jumped to US $ 83 billion per year – 34% at the total loss.
Or Sicobe case
While the government to balance the accounts, abdicates a system that can recover $ 15.8 billion a year in revenue-according to FEA-USP research (Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting, University of São Paulo).
In 2024, the SICOBE Court of Audit (TCU). The IRS appealed. Through the AGU (Attorney General of the Union), a writ of mandamus was filed at the Supreme Court (STF).
In the writ of mandamus, the AGU argued that the IRS had the authority to turn off Sicobe and that the TCU extrapolated its functions by ordering its return.
The government also presented financial arguments. He said the revenue spends every year with its computerized systems R $ 1.7 billion – a number of R $ 1.8 billion annual from Sicobe.
Added to R $ 1.4 billion to maintain the operation, the total cost would be equivalent to hiring about 4,300 new tax auditors.
In 2025, the TCU (Supreme Court) Supreme Court (STF) by injunction.
The beverage sector has also resisted the implementation of electronic controls. Among the main beneficiaries of the maintenance of the system off is the Petrópolis Group (owner of brands such as Itaipava, Crystal and Petra).
In 2009, the group obtained a court injunction not to join Sicobe, a decision later suspended by TRF-1. And through entities such as CERVBRASIL and SINDICERV have articulated lawsuits to maintain the system inactive.
Petrópolis Group owner Walter Faria, for money laundering in Odebrecht bribes payment scheme. The scheme, with politicians from the then PMDB, occurred before the deactivation of Sicobe by decision of then President Michel Temer.
The MPF (Federal Prosecutor) reported Faria by acting in 642 acts of money laundering that moved more than R $ 1.1 billion.
Now, with weakened inspection, the Brazilian government does not yet know the real size of the industry – in these frauds.
The new model of traceability of the program that is being implemented in partnership with the Mint, is classified by Ramazzini as just “OK”.
The IRS program was instituted in 2022. It uses digital seals integrated with NF-e (Electronic Invoice) to track production. It will be mandatory for drinks and cigarettes, and optional for other sectors. Only it hasn’t left the paper yet.
Among the options discussed so far, Ramazzini estimates that Sicobe was the most viable system technically.
O Poder360 He sought the IRS through email and telephone to ask if I would like to comment on the collection data and the possible relationship with the deactivation of Sicobe. There was no answer until the publication of this report. The text will be updated if a demonstration is sent to this digital newspaper.
