“The withholdings are not what we want, it’s not what the president or any of us gathered here wants, but it’s part of an emergency, a possible hyperinflation situation that we’re facing.” With these words, the Minister of Agriculture Fernando Vilella justified the application of export duties last night at the National Congress, during the debate on the Omnibus Law which It provides for the establishment of withholding taxes of 15% on most agro-industrial products.
The official briefly summarized the recent evolution of this tax and recalled that until four months ago it was in force for practically all regional economies, and underlined that since the inauguration of Javier Milei There were variables that improved the equation for exporterssuch as the reduction of the exchange rate gap, which today is 35% while last year it was 300%.
“So, from the perspective of the income of each of the affected people, the number at the end of the day is different. On the other hand, numerous regulations have been issued that allow access to market products in different ways, without arbitrariness, without controls. All this is transformed in three weeks”, remarked Vilella, and then argued that withholding taxes are a tool that allows the internal price of food to be contained in a context of acute economic crisis.
“National authorities find themselves with $50 billion in unpaid imports that someone authorized, a Central Bank without resources, 45% poverty, 60% poor children, 20% of whom failed to eat adequately tonight. This is the situation in which, with inflation at 1% daily, the tools needed to be found to rebalance the economy. One of the tools was to carry out a devaluation. What the withholdings do is give local consumers a lower price at the time of payment,” he said.
The official then spoke about the various concrete proposals put forward by the deputies present at the session. He explained, for example, that the criterion for defining the application or not of withholding taxes to each sector is “chain”, that is, if a crop is exempt, all the by-products derived from that crop are exempt, so as not to generate differentials that act as disincentives to the creation of value.
Vilella also pointed out that unlike other phases where an individual official moved the withholding tax rate at will, this time the discussion is taking place in Congress. “Here the decision about what will happen is in your hands,” he said, assuring that “to the extent that the macroeconomics improves, since the intention is that withholding taxes are not there, we will be able to lower them.” .”
Source: Clarin
