Dollar card: the government prepares the new scheme

With Sergio Massa just arriving from his US tour and the need to take care of and hold back the few dollars that float around, the Government is speeding up the end points of the ads that will be starring. dollar paper and imports. As Clarin learned, the measures that refer to the exchange rate for traveling abroad They will meet tonight.

“We are working on measures on tourism abroad”economic team sources told this medium. What is sought is to establish “priorities” on currencies. The main objective is to increase the reserves, which happened with the liquidation of the soybean, but it is not enough.

On a hectic Wednesday and after having known the inflation figure for August – which was 7% -, some meetings in Economics took place in the afternoon. The main one with Sergio Massa at the helm. But, in addition, there was also a meeting between customs chief Guillermo Michel and his BCRA counterpart, Miguel Angel Pesce, of which no details have been disclosed.

However, it is still unclear what scheme will be implemented for the dollar card, but one of the options could be to once again raise the tax that is withheld on income and personal property, which in principle was 35%, and a month ago it rose to 45% for spending abroad .

Another option being analyzed has to do with forcing those who have dollar spending overseas to buy those dollars in the electronic payments market (MEP). This is an operation already regulated in the financial system and frequently used by banks.

The focus on the Qatari dollar has been set by the business sector which has asked the government that the few dollars that are there could be used to import inputs and not final products, such as tourism abroad. In a statement, the UIA stated: “Our goal is to find solutions so that the industry has supplies, spare parts and machinery.”

Last week, AFIP also kept an eye on the mono-tributaries who will go to the World Cup in Qatar. The agency crossed the data of contributors to the simplified scheme with the sale of tickets for the World Cup and found inconsistencies in 151 cases.

This was confirmed by the collection agency of the 541 monotributors who bought the tickets to go and see the Argentine football team, 151 have no income that can justify buying those tickets.

In this sense, the body led by Carlos Castagneto has ensured him “It will continue to carry out checks, cross-checking information with tourist agencies to detect who bought the tickets o packages to participate in the World Cup; with the Migration Department to check who went to that event; and with credit cards to check the expenses made in Qatar in the days before the start and during the competition “.

tourist dollar

What is the tourist dollar, or card, used today? It is contemplated in at least 5 operations:

• the purchase of bills of exchange or foreign currency for savings purposes or without a specific purpose (the officer has a fee of US $ 200 per month for those who are qualified).

• Payment for products or services abroad or within the country via digital streaming platforms such as Spotify or Netflix. This is part of that $ 200 fee.

• Payment for services provided by non-residents of Argentina.

• Purchase of services abroad through travel agencies in Argentina.

• Purchase of land, air or sea tickets abroad to the extent that the single free exchange market is accessed for their payment in order to acquire a greater quantity of foreign currency.

These last two elements are of particular concern for the imminence of the World Cup in Qatar (just 67 days from the end). Already in mid-August, FIFA had confirmed that the Argentina was among the countries with the highest demand for tickets required, being the first of the Continenteven above Brazil and is in the world top 10.

Argentina is in eighth place among the countries that have requested the most tickets. Among the top five countries that have bought the most tickets are: Qatar, United States, England, Saudi Arabia and Mexico, the last two are rivals of the Argentine national team in the group stage. Then there are the United Arab Emirates and France.

Argentina is above Brazil, which is in ninth place with the highest ticket demand, and the top ten is closed by Germany.

dollar purchase savings on the rise

Despite the increasingly restrictive exchange rate and in the face of the current crisis, the interest of Argentines to buy savings in dollars is growing. So much that in the first seven months of the year they doubled, adding $ 1,253 million100% more than the 626 million dollars recorded in the same period of 2021, according to data published by the Central Bank.

And according to BCRA data, in the first seven months of the year, payments for travel, tickets and card expenses of individuals and companies amounted to 4,116 million dollars.

YN