巴西水电燃气互联网非法接入致企业损失数十亿雷亚尔

Christianne Dias Ferreira Wenderson Araujo/Valor Illegal activity in essential-service sectors such as water, electricity, internet, and cooking gas—liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)—has reached a scale in Brazil that challenges the government to reclaim areas where organized crime exercises economic and territorial control. Illegal connections, known as gatos, cause billions of reais in losses for companies in these sectors, create unfair competition, raise consumer prices, and violate tax, regulatory, and safety requirements. Actual nontechnical electricity losses—power consumed but not billed because of theft, meter tampering, reading errors, and billing failures—reached their highest level in 15 years in 2025: 45 terawatt-hours (TWh), equivalent to 7.1% of all electricity fed into the system during the year. That would be enough to meet Brazil’s electricity needs for nearly a month, according to Ricardo Brandão, regulatory director at the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (Aneel). The estimated cost of electricity diversion reached R$11.5 billion last year. Of that amount, R$7.9 billion was passed on to consumers, adding 3.1% to electricity bills. “The remainder was absorbed by the distributors,” Brandão says. But the impact is not merely financial. Last year, 650,000 power outages linked to electricity theft were recorded, lasting an average of five hours and affecting more than 3 million consumers. Illegal connections and fraud can also overload the grid, damage infrastructure and undermine the quality and continuity of supply, affecting entire streets and neighborhoods. “The problem of illegal connections is no longer isolated; it has become a structural issue for the electricity sector,” Brandão notes. The cooking-gas industry faces two forms of illegal trade: outlets not authorized by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) and sales in areas controlled by organized crime. In the first case, poor cylinder-storage conditions pose risks to consumers and surrounding communities. In the second, suppliers hold a monopoly and charge prices two to three times higher than those at legitimate outlets in nearby areas. Legitimate companies cannot sell their products in markets where organized crime has imposed another brand, says Sérgio Bandeira de Mello, president of the Brazilian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Distributors (Sindigás). “Because cylinders are identified by different colors, criminals commonly select one color to tighten their control and prevent consumers from buying elsewhere. That shuts the market off from competition and drives up prices,” he explains. Legal-market sales totaled 7.7 million tonnes of LPG in fiscal 2025, generating more than R$43 billion in revenue and R$11 billion in tax payments. Citing studies by Ecoa Consultoria Econômica, Mello warns that annual tax revenue could fall by R$796.1 million if informality in the industry reaches 41%—the same level observed in the cigarette market. Data for the internet industry indicates that 4.7 million “invisible” fixed connections do not appear in the official records of the Brazilian Telecommunications Agency (Anatel). Their estimated annual revenue ranges from R$4.9 billion to R$5.3 billion. “That figure, however, cannot be interpreted as a direct loss for legitimate providers because not all connections classified as ‘invisible’ belong to illegal operators,” explains Breno Vale, president of the Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications Providers (Abrint). The problems caused by internet piracy extend beyond connection quality. Alves explains that legitimate companies must follow Anatel rules governing customer service, transparency, quality, reimbursement for outages, data protection, and other user rights. Monitoring compliance with and enforcing those guarantees is more difficult in the informal market. He adds that uncertified equipment and improperly installed infrastructure also pose risks. The sanitation industry faces similar problems. Water losses account for 39% of total production, including physical losses from leaks and apparent losses, which encompass illegal connections, fraud, and metering failures. Apparent losses caused R$3.6 billion in damage in 2024. “That is a great deal of money going down the drain,” says Christianne Dias Ferreira, CEO of the Brazilian Association of Private Water and Sewage Concessionaires (Abcon). Reducing apparent losses requires identifying who diverts or steals water. Unlike those who install illegal connections simply to game the system, some marginalized people resort to the practice to obtain access to an essential service. Ferreira says an effective inclusion mechanism for this group is the social tariff, which has been mandatory since 2024 and provides a discount of at least 50% on water bills for low-income families that consume up to 10 or 15 cubic meters a month. Translation: Todd Harkin