The text will continue to be analyzed by the plenary session of the House of Representatives
In order to make money laundering more difficult, the Commission for Economic Affairs (CAE), on Tuesday (24), approved a draft that prohibits cash transactions in four different forms: operations of more than 10 thousand Brazilian reais, and payment of bank coupons higher than the Brazilian real. 5,000 riyals (and more than 10,000 riyals for non-residents of the country); Trading above R$100 thousand (excluding transfers by value companies), and possession of more than R$300 thousand, except for specific cases.
PL 3.951/2019, by Senator Flávio Arns (Podemos-PR), received a favorable opinion of the Rapporteur, Senator Alessandro Vieira (Cidadania-SE), with an amendment by Senator Oriovisto Guimarães (Podemos-PR) which also prohibits the use of cash in Real estate transactions. According to Oriofesto, this type of operation is routinely used to hide unexplained assets or launder illegally obtained money.
“The project has a clear objective, which is to reduce opportunities for money laundering and corruption,” Alessandro noted.
The proposal is now referred to the Committee on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship (CCJ), for a final decision – through which it can be referred to the Chamber for analysis.
crime prevention
The text has been drafted based on the new anti-corruption measures, authored by Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) Law Professor Michael Mohallem. According to Arens, the goal of the project is to prevent crimes of laundering or concealing goods and valuables, as well as the use of economic systems to engage in illegal activities.
In justifying the project, Arens explained that the transfer of cash “facilitates the laundering of resources in corrupt activities, facilitates tax evasion, as well as provides opportunities for crimes such as bank robberies, and ATM robberies, among others.”
He adds that similar measures have already been implemented by many countries, citing, for example, the United States, where financial institutions are required to report all cash transactions over $10,000 to a center supervised by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).
Similarly, Canada and Australia, for example Arns, “require cash transactions of $10,000 or more to be reported. In Europe, countries such as Portugal, Italy, Greece and Belgium have implemented measures that enforce reporting of transactions and place restrictions on the use of cash.”
tracking
For Alessandro Vieira, Brazil already has similar legislation. This is Federal Revenue Guideline 1761, of 2017, which requires cash transactions to be reported in transactions over R$30,000, including donations.
In addition, according to Central Bank Circular No. 3839 of 2017, customers who wish to make a cash deposit, cash withdrawal or cash withdrawal by means of a prepaid card, in an amount equal to or greater than 50 thousand, must inform their intentions and report the data to the respective banks. , which must send this information to the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), formerly known as (Coaf),” he added in his report to the chief audit executive.
However, according to the decision, “legislative work is urgently required, in order to facilitate the work of the Public Prosecution Office and prevent the occurrence of various crimes through the use of huge sums of money.”
In Alessandro Vieira’s view, the Brazilian banking system is qualified, and among the most developed in the world, in a position to allow financial transactions to be carried out without the need to carry cash, thus making it easier for the authorities to track any movement of financial matters. In addition, he asserts, “the implementation of the procedures will be very low cost.”
