Exchange houses can offer the new “traveling dollar” from today. photo EFE
The need to withhold dollars entering the country is the trigger for the latest measures that the government is implementing, such as the new kind of “dollar traveler.”“, so that international tourists sell their tickets in the” empty “market and not in the blue market.
The operation, at first glance simple, it will create more bureaucracy for banks and currency exchange. As indicated by the Central Bank, It will not be mandatory for banking institutions have a window for tourists (that is, it may be that no private person enables it) and whoever wants to have it, could already do it without further procedure.
yet to know how it will be checked that only tourists benefit from the higher exchange rate, among other things.
What will the operation be like?
According to the Central Bank, tourists will be able to sell their dollars in banks for the “financial” dollar or MEP. which is around $ 321 (versus $ 337 for the blue), with a limit of $ 5,000 per month. They must show a valid document.
Entities, for their part, will have to do this check the document of the tourist, check it is not on the United Nations lists to fight terrorism and that it does not reside in countries where the Recommendations of International Financial Action Task Force.
But that’s not all, they will have to ask the traveler for a sworn statement indicating their tourist status and that they have not already carried out transactions equivalent to the limit of $ 5,000 per month.
Since the operation that the bank has to do in order to change the MEP dollar banknotes involves the purchase and sale of bonds, to “speed up the service” to the customer the bank can give you the dollars at the current MEP value, although it doesn’t have those titles. But he must “carry out the operations with deposits within 2 working days from the assignment by the tourist”.
The bureaucracy for the banks does not end there. For each operation that the institution carries out you will have to make a ticket in the name of the customer, indicating the amount in foreign currency received and the amount in pesos delivered.
So far this year, foreign tourists have spent $ 1.4 billion – an average of $ 200 million a month – but traded them in caves or for small trees on the street. Just 16% of that amount has changed in the official market.
The Central Bank had already tried to persuade tourists to liquidate their dollars on the official market at the MEP value, but by opening a special account. At that time it was the traveler who had to carry out the dollar exchange operation. Now the operation is in the hands of the bank and the part that belongs to the tourist is simplified.
In any case, it is still an extra procedure to obtain a dollar which, despite being “blank” and within a financial entity, trade under the blue.
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Source: Clarin
