The Ministry of Commerce reported today that the trade debt for imports with foreign suppliers has been met 21,000 million dollars. The figure is a third of the calculation estimated by the private sector, which places this debt 60,000 million dollars.
Importers’ debt doubled last year after the Central Bank blocked access to purchasing the dollars needed to pay their suppliers. Importers then had to meet these obligations with their own dollars or with loans from parent companies or by resorting to dollar finance, which Before the December devaluation, it was trading 130% above the official dollar.
With the change of government, Javier Milei’s team asked importers to register their outstanding debts. And since foreign currency remains scarce, the Ministry of Economy has launched a bonusthe BOPREAL, so that importers can acquire it and use it to pay tax obligations or to access the official dollar in the future.
But so far, with two races already completed, Acceptance of the bonus does not arouse interest among importers.
Today the Secretary of Commerce reported that the debts recorded in the register amount to 21,000 million dollars. This amount is made up of 16.5 billion dollars from large companies; $2.5 billion from mid-sized companies; and $2,000 million from small and micro businesses.
Registration in this register is mandatory for all importers who have not had access to the Single Market and Free Trade (MULC) to cancel all such obligations. Registration was scheduled to close on January 13th, but Registration has been extended until the 24th of this month and has also been extended to imports by courier and declarations of entry into the Free Zone.
The provision of the Secretariat of Commerce establishes that in the event that the debts “have been canceled through other mechanisms that do not involve the transfer of currency, the operation must be reported as “completed”, a situation which will allow the operation to proceed. concluded before the financial institutions by updating it in the monitoring of import payments (SEPAIMPO).”
The prospectus specifies that the operations reported in this way They have already exceeded 2,000 million dollars.
The debt amounts
At the beginning of last December, the Chamber that brings together US companies operating in Argentina (AMCham) found that the commercial debt that importing companies have accumulated with their suppliers since March 2022 has reached 56 billion dollars. The amount is in line with other private estimates, which put the figure at $60 billion.
Traditionally, every year the importers debt to their suppliers amounts to approximately 20 billion dollars, as a result of the gap between the time the transaction is carried out and the time the payment is made. But since 2022, that debt has grown because The Central was slowing down the delivery of foreign currency to importers, in the midst of dollar shortage.
But the truth is that this amount of between $56,000 and $60,000 million included debts between large companies and their parent companies or that had already been paid with their own dollars. That’s why the Secretary of Commerce’s docket records a lower amount.
On the other hand, BOPREAL, the instrument created by the government to pay off the current debt, has failed to seduce importers. Were performed two noticesfor US$750 million respectively and only US$67 million and US$60 million were subscribed. The third call will be held today.
In the market, this time they mark it BOPREAL might have better luck, Since the exchange rate gap between the official dollar and the cash dollar has increased from around 30% to 50% in recent days, which could encourage interest in the stock.
Until ten days ago, the financial dollar was trading around $1,000 and was considered “cheap” by the market, which encouraged importers to opt for this financial dollar rather than accepting a bond with little liquidity on the secondary market .
Source: Clarin
