The Minister of Commerce, Pablo Lavigne, convened the food producers analyze the measures announced on Tuesday, which aim to do this facilitate the import of food, hygiene products and medicines lower the prices of the basic basket, amid tensions between the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, and the industrialists over the decision adopted.
Lavigne will receive the head of the Coordinator of Food Industries (Copal), Daniel Funes of Rioja. The economic team adjusts the final details of the legislation that will reduce the import payment period and will be suspended for 120 days VAT collection additional and income taxes.
Specifically, the payment plan will move from a scheme of four installments at 30, 60, 90 and 120 days to a single installment at 30 days. And the products achieved will be bananas, potatoes, pork, coffee, tuna, cocoa products, insecticides, shampoo, diapers, drugs, among many others that the business chambers are not yet aware of.
The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, justified the measure announced this morning by the presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, by warning that “the majority, if not all entrepreneurs, They priced (embedded prices) their commodity by imagining a situation of maximum stress, a dollar of $2,000, $2,800, some take the future Rofex dollar as a reference, and the reality is that this has not happened.”
“They know their products are obsolete and their response was ‘we’ll lower them.’ Now, well, in the meantime there are prices that really, and some are based on the core basket, that honestly can’t be there,” he said . And she recalled that the government has eliminated controls (fair prices, supply law and gondola law), but “things cost 50% more than in the United States.”
Although imports have already been made more flexible with the elimination of permits SIRA and SIRASE, The new concessions aim to lower the prices of the basic basket. With inflation in February 13.2%Caputo said mid-year will be “single digits,” but some economists estimate the decline could end in March due to increases in tariffs and regulated services.
In this context, Caputo and Lavgine met with the CEOs of consumer goods companies last week and with supermarkets this Monday. In these meetings, the minister excluding a strong devaluation he worried about prices and the use of promotions, questioning business owners about “excessive” adjustments made in the summer.
And yesterday he reiterated his position, claiming that many products “were outdated in dollars.” “We are not even asking for a reduction, but rather that prices more or less reflect the price at which they are sold. If we sell 2 for 1 or an 80% discount on the second unit, it means the first unit can be sold much cheaper,” he told an audience of AmCham executives.
The decision sparked mixed reactions. This was demonstrated by the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), of which COPAL is part discontent with the tax benefits announced for food imports and considered that this measure “it seriously affects competitiveness” from local producers. “Food companies are angry,” a source at the entity said.
The executive committee has expressed its “concern” about what they see as unequal treatment. “While domestic producers will have to pay in 4 monthly installments and with the PAIS tax the inputs necessary for production, importers of finished goods will be exempt from taxes and will have full access to the necessary foreign currency in a single 30-day payment”, they stated. noticed.
“The announcement made today seriously affects the competitiveness of companies that operate, produce and employ in the country,” the center warned after the meeting of the entity’s sectoral and regional representatives, where they also looked with concern at the decline in activity industrial ., the internal market and the impact of cost growth.
On the other hand, the laboratories gathered in the Industrial Chamber of Pharmaceutical Laboratories (CILFA) welcomed the measure and denied that it is an opening of imports. “It is positive, it reduces the impact of financing high-cost drugs, it represents a change in fiscal regulation and the elimination of perceptions,” industry sources said.
Source: Clarin
