The need has the face of a heretic and in Argentina that need is dollars. With this goal in mind, Sergio Massa on Monday announced measures to try to increase exports of professional services and technology by 30%.. Those companies that do will be able to liquidate a percentage of those dollars on the financial market or pay salaries, among other benefits. For the sector, incentives are a good sign, but they see it as a palliative. “This does not solve the underlying problem: the exchange gap“a qualified source told Clarione.
Massa points out that the companies that make up the universe of the knowledge economy, including Accenture, Globant and Mercado Libre, exports around $ 10,000 million a year, well above the current figure. From June 2021 to the same month of this year, overseas sales were US $ 7,260 million, an increase of 22%. This is a promising figure as the industry has come from 3 years of downfall.
Technological consultants and large consultants are already reckoning on the battery of measures announced by Massa. One of the main ones is the so-called “techno dollar”. A company can freely dispose of 30% of the dollars on the increase in its exports. It will be based on quarterly statistics kept by the central bank of each company. “If it were 22%, as was the industry average, it would correspond to 6.6% of the total”, they underline.
It is not the only thing. Free access will also be granted to 20% of dollars entering the country to invest in export projects, as long as they exceed $ 3 million. The fine will be known in the coming days, when the Government will formalize the measures through a DNU. The most optimistic interpreted the ads as a nod to a sector that has more than 450,000 employees highly skilled and well above average salaries. In pesos.
Argentina exports consulting, technical, accounting, legal, marketing, engineering and design services, just to name a few. The most relevant is the software, a voice affected by the lack of programmers, a chronic problem. In the third quarter of last year and despite barriers to trade, IT added 129,000 jobs, 13.3% more than in the same period in 2021, says the latest report from Argencon, the industry chamber. .
The exchange rate gap has introduced a problem that has worsened in recent years: in the industry it is referred to as “brain drain” or “informality”. In reality they are the people who decide to work as freelancers abroad and who receive compensation in dollars, which they receive in accounts abroad, on platforms such as Paypal or in cryptocurrencies. It is estimated that this The “informal economy” generated $ 1.8 billion in 2021 (almost 30% of the formal), which they do not pay taxes or feed the Central Bank’s reserves.
A version that is circulating with insistence is that the Ministry of Economy could announce in the coming days a “technological monotribute” which aims precisely to formalize self-employed workers and professionals. Namely, a kind of money laundering that motivates them to throw their tax dollars into the country. Is another version of the soybean dollar coming?
“The good part of Massa’s announcement is the discursive one and the one aimed at the knowledge industry as one of the engines of the country. The measures announced are a step forward in a field inclined to macro. The fundamental change is to normalize the economy and above all, reduce the exchange rate gap “, assessed an industry source.
Source: Clarin
