By Mariana Martins

The Executive Management Committee of the Foreign Trade Chamber, through Resolution No. 17, of March 17, 2020, temporarily reduced the import tax rate on 50 medical-hospital items necessary to combat the coronavirus, such as alcohol gel, gloves, protective masks, disinfectants, catheters, surgical materials, among others.

In addition to the exemption, which will remain in effect until the day September 30, 2020, priority was established in conducting the import and release stages of these goods.

To regulate the debureaucratization of customs clearance procedures and the release of these items, the Federal Revenue Service issued Normative Instruction No. 1,927/2020, published in the DOU on August 18, 2020, through which the following measures were established, among other measures:

– The release of goods and the possibility of their use before the customs inspection procedures are completed, provided that the DI (import declaration) has already been registered, which is also valid for capital goods and raw materials in general that are also intended to control the spread of the coronavirus;

– Priority processing of the DI (import declaration) and priority storage treatment for the items in question.

Our tax team is available to provide advice to companies that import and resell these items, in order to ensure the reduction of all bureaucracy in registration with regulatory bodies (ANVISA) and customs.