Roberto Feletti is now against tire companies. Photo Federico Lopez Claro
In his own plan within the “war” against inflation, the kirchnerist Roberto Feletti this Sunday faced a new battle to determine the causes of high rate. The Secretary of Internal Commerce sent a request of information on tire companies what for transparent information about cost of production and marketing.
The official who lined up with Cristina Kirchner and who was called by Alberto Fernández last year to try to curb inflation maintains that the high price paid by the last consumer “is not relationship to costs nor have reasonable profit margins ”.
The regulatory secretariat – almost completely disconnected from the Ministry of Economy from its superior on paper, Martín Guzmán – recognized that the price of tires “is a very important issue” because their value “affects the whole distribution chainby land transport is the main means of distributing goods throughout the country ”.
The companies were scared and must respond to the request within five days Guerrini, Bridgestone, Corral, FATE, Fortalein SA, Neumasur, Larocca and Pirelli.
The call arrives at the time of lack of tires in the market due to import barriers preventing the departure of dollars. Last year the stocks of various brands were exhausted, to the point that now there are measures that are almost unattainable, with replacement delays They can last up to three or four months.
Therefore, the government is preventing on the one hand the supply and on the other hand, questioning the price increase which occurs due to the lack of inputs that form its own obstacle.
The notice comes at a time of tire shortages in the market due to import barriers. Clarin photo archive
What Feletti is asking of tire companies
According to the Ministry of Domestic Trade, the request signed by Feletti was provided within the framework of Law of Supply and asks for information on five points:
1) Production according to the type of tire of the last (12) months.
two) Factory Outlet Selling Priceby tire type, in the last twelve (12) months.
3) Selling price to distributorsby tire type, in the last twelve (12) months.
4) Suggested retail price in publicby tire type, in the last twelve (12) months.
5) Evolution of the primary cost of production and commercialization, by tire type, in the last twelve (12) months.
The call to Feletti came at a time of tire shortage in the market due to import barriers. Image: Clarin file.
“The request was made for the purpose of Analyze and evaluate price increases in the sector and make the country’s tire market transparent, ”they said in a statement.
In turn, they said it was given in response to a previous order of information to these companies, which they did not answer or were not adequately answered.
Feletti, along with the undersecretary of Policies for the Internal Market, Antonio Mezmezian, met on Thursday, April 28, with sector representatives to analyze the problem and seek explanations about the increase -unreasonable according to officials- on tire prices. Previously, the Secretariat had requested information to determine the reason for the increases.
“You see a price acceleration to final products that are not associated with costs or have a reasonable profit margin. We do not validate that a total price dispersion, who do not know the relationship to costs. For this reason, we want to know what is causing the dispersions and what is causing the permanent pressure on the rising price of tires ”, Feletti said at the meeting on Thursday.
DS
Source: Clarin
