After pressure from Cristina Kirchner, the government strengthens stocks on imports

Concerned about the continuing drainage of reserves and Cristina Kirchner’s harsh warnings about the “import festival “, In the last few hours, the government has put forward a new scheme for the management of imports. Like Coca Cola, the formula is kept under strict secret, but everything indicates that the business team is preparing a tweezers strategy with the same goal: stop the escape of dollars.

The upcoming scheme would add new restrictions to bypass the official filter, greater restrictions on access to foreign currency at official value, company-by-company reviews and more intense tax controls. The mechanism should be a clockwork mechanism not to slow down activity or complicate the program with the IMF, where they have already warned that efforts to accumulate dollars should avoid more controls on imports.

Immersed in the strictest silence in the midst of the presidential tour in Germany, the various ministries last night assigned responsibility for the upcoming changes to other portfolios. “Talk to the Economy and the Central Bank,” they said last night from an official office. Others indicated the Ministry of Productive Development and AFIP. All symptoms of the fragmentation of decisions in a government under fire.

Accompanied by BCRA chief Miguel Pesce and his Secretary of Commerce Guillermo Hang, Martín Guzmán acknowledged last Friday in a meeting with businessmen that the strong growth of energy imports “accentuated the needs of foreign trade administration”. In the first five months, they added $ 4,641 million, triple the $ 1,520 million in the same period of 2021.

The two Albertist officials believe that the uncertainty caused by the energy price shock fruit of the war in Ukraine has stimulated the advancement of fuel imports. But there are currently no instructions to limit them. This would fuel the flare-up of inflation and the unease due to the lack of diesel. The focus will be on intermediate goods and final consumption, both targeted by the economists who advise the vice president.

Having just taken office at the Ministry of Productive Development, Daniel Scioli last week launched an investigation between chambers and companies to detect “speculative” imports. In one day he meets UIA, CAME and CGERA. From there, the businessmen left with the certainty that the tourniquet will be tight, but no one wants to duck at the wedding. The Secretariat of Industry, responsible for Ariel Schale, manages the permits (automatic and non-automatic licenses).

The industrialists, however, fear that the Central Bank will take care of the new securities, with the extension of the deadline of 180 days to access foreign currency to pay for purchases abroad. Since March, the entity has divided non-automatic imports into two categories of the Global Import Monitoring System (SIMI). As’s have immediate access to dollars and Bs have to wait 180 days to exceed the required $ 5% in 2021.

Last Monday Cristina asked Scioli for greater articulation with the BCRA. Her portfolio is in charge of defining the inclusion of tariff positions in SIMI B, an option that the team of Andrés Asiain, of the Scalabrini Ortiz Center (CESO), deems feasible. For now, the minister has defined that there will be a revision “company by company “, an idea promoted by the head of CEPA, Hernán Letcher, one of the voices that the vice president listens to.

The former ambassador to Brazil will meet in the coming days with ADEFA terminals to review their production, export and import numbers and determine the exchange rate based on the dollar surplus. Even if he the volume of imported vehicles went from 40 to 50% between March and May, companies do not expect problems. The BCRA has already authorized them to divest part of their stake to their auto parts suppliers.

News also expected in AFIP and Customs, two areas reported by the vice president in her speech last Monday, as they are those that fix the reference prices and check that there is no under-invoicing of exports or over-invoicing of imports. After Cristina’s attack on tax evasion, employees noticed an increase in inspections. “Operations continue just as intense”replied official sources.

Last night a version indicated that they will investigate “overbilling of imports” of some companies in Tierra del Fuego.

The pressures had an impact on the bodywork at the head of the Mercedes Marcó del Pont. Last week, Guillermo Michel, a Sergio Massa man working on measures to manage foreign trade, took over as director of customs and Deputy Director General of Human Resources, Cecilia Rodríguez, aligned with La Cámpora, took power assuming management power, including the appointment of non-university-trained personnel into hierarchical positions.