March collections recorded a nominal increase of 88% compared to the same month of the previous year. With inflation for the same period close to 107%, real tax revenue decline would be 7.2%.
From the AFIP they reported that the collection amounted to March a $2.3 trillion. “The most significant taxes of the structure referring to the domestic market and linked to employment recorded year-on-year variations above the average, unlike those linked to foreign trade. As regards the inter-monthly comparison, collection increased by 6% compared to the previous month,” detailed the official organ.
Furthermore, AFIP specified that if customs resources are excluded from the analysis (which include taxes on export duties, import duties, the statistical rate and perceptions made in customs of VAT, profits, domestic and fuels), collection in March would have grown by 121.1% year-on-year.
The AFIP has tried to highlight that “taxes linked to the national production of goods and services destined for the internal market and those linked to formal employment grow above the price variation of the period. This datum suggests that the economic activity aimed at domestic absorption continues to give good results“.
Economic activity so far this year has been affected by the drought and private estimates suggest that there was a decline in the first quarter compared to the previous quarter. If so, it will confirm that the country has already entered a recession.
In nominal terms, without taking inflation into account, the taxes that recorded an above-average variation were: Personal Goods (166.83%), Participatory Internal Affairs (147.94%), Check Tax (122.14%) , VAT (120.56%), Social Security (113.03%), Other shareholders (101.12%) and Profits (93.65%).
The official report mentions that the income from export duties decreased by 64.6% compared to March 2022 “due to lower volumes declared in Overseas Sales Affidavits (DJVE) corresponding mainly to pellets and soybean oil due to the effect of the drought.”
“If the analysis is extended to the collection of taxes accumulated in the first three months of 2023, it is observed that 6.7 trillion dollars were received in this period, an 88% change compared to the same quarter of 2022”, indicates the official statement.
According to the estimate of Nadin Argañaraz, director of IARAF, in the third month of 2023, national tax collection would have decreased by 7.2% in real terms compared to March 2022. And in the first quarter there would have been a real decline of 6.6%, which cut a trend of two years in a row starting from increases in real terms,
The biggest drop was in export duties, which fell 82.6% real year-on-year due to the drought’s impact on agricultural production. On the other hand, VAT would have had a real increase of 7.9%, while Profits would have suffered a real decrease of 4.6% and Social Security a real increase of 5%.
“Looking historically in constant currency, the first quarter of 2023, in terms of foreign trade receipts (import duties plus export duties), would have been the lowest in the last 4 years and it would be just above the year 2017 level“, they stressed.
AQ
Source: Clarin
