Towards a balanced approach in the performance indicators of the Brazilian customs

Procurement in international markets is a current practice in today’s global supply chains, leading logistics operations to include import and export activities in their procurement process. Such activities are usually of complex nature, since they are subject to diverse customs requirements in different countries. In this context, Brazilian customs is ranked low in terms of competitiveness according to various international organizations. However, published studies on customs administration in Brazil are rare, and there is no research addressing performance measurement in the specialized literature. Thus, this paper aims to present and discuss performance indicators employed by customs administrations around the world, with a special attention to Brazil. Customs is part of a global supply chain management. As an exploratory qualitative research, this manuscript provides a comparison of performance indicators employed in Brazil against those used by countries with high-performance customs. A set of performance indicators was selected according to international standards. Data concerning Brazilian customs was collected from the Ministry of Finance, using the Law on Access to Information, and published Management Reports related to the Brazilian Revenue Authority, in charge of tax and customs administration. This topic is relevant in Brazil because the indicators used so far favour tax collection and controls (related to “enforcement practices”) to the detriment of the service level provided to the taxpayer (related to “compliance practices” and the “service charter”), as used in countries with high customs performance. As a result, this paper puts into evidence the need to reform the Brazilian customs system, favouring a balanced approach combining “enforcement” and “compliance” in order to increase the competitiveness of international supply chains crossing this country.

Performance measurement; Logistics operations; International supply chains; International trade