The Secretary of Commerce, Pablo Lavigne, called on
food manufacturers
to analyze the measures announced on Tuesday, which aim to
facilitate the importation of food, hygiene products and medicines
to lower the prices of the basic basket, amid tensions. that exists between the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, and the industrialists for the decision taken.
Lavigne will receive the head of the Coordinator of Food Products Industries (Copal),
Daniel Funes de Rioja
.
The economic team adjusts the final details of the regulations that will reduce the
payment period for imports for a list of positions and will suspend
the collection of
additional VAT and income taxes for 120 days.
Specifically, the payment schedule will go from a scheme of four installments at 30, 60, 90 and 120 days to a single installment at 30 days.
And the products reached will be bananas, potatoes, pork, coffee, tuna, cocoa products, insecticides, shampoos, diapers, medications, among many others that the business chambers still do not know about.
The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, justified yesterday the measure announced in the morning by the presidential spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, by warning that "the majority, if not all businessmen,
priced (incorporated prices to) their merchandise imagining a situation of maximum stress, a dollar of $2,000, $2,800,
some taking Rofex's future dollar as a reference, and the reality is that it did not happen."
"They know that their products are outdated and their response was 'we are going to lower them'. Now, well, in the meantime, there are prices that really, and some are based on the basic basket, that cannot honestly be there," he said. And He recalled that the Government eliminated controls (Fair Prices, the Supply Law and the Gondola Law), but "things are 50% more expensive than in the United States."
Although imports have already been made more flexible with the elimination of the
SIRA and SIRASE permits,
the new facilities aim to lower the prices of the basic basket.
With inflation in February of
13.2%
, Caputo said that by mid-year it will be "single digits", but some economists estimate that the decline could be interrupted in March due to increases in rates and regulated services.
In this context, Caputo and Lavgine met last week with the CEOs of mass consumption companies and this Monday with the supermarkets.
In those meetings, the minister
ruled out a sudden devaluation
and was concerned about prices and the use of promotions, while questioning businessmen for the "excessive" adjustments they made in the summer.
And yesterday he ratified his position, maintaining that many products “were outdated in dollars.”
“We are not even asking for a reduction, but rather that the prices more or less reflect the price at which they sell.
If we sell 2x1 or 80% discount on the second unit, it means that the first can be sold much more reasonably,” he stated in front of an audience of executives at AmCham.
The decision generated mixed reactions.
The Argentine Industrial Union (UIA), of which COPAL is a part, showed its
dissatisfaction with the tax benefits announced for food imports
and considered that this measure
“seriously affects the competitiveness
” of local producers.
"The food companies are angry," said a source from the entity.
The executive committee expressed its "concern" about what they consider unequal treatment.
"While national producers must pay in 4 monthly installments and with PAIS tax for the inputs necessary for manufacturing, 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 noted.
"The announcement made today seriously affects the competitiveness of the companies that operate, produce and employ in the country," the center warned after the meeting of its sectoral and regional representatives of the entity, where they also view with concern the drop in industrial activity. , the domestic market and the impact of cost growth.
On the other hand, the laboratories grouped in the Industrial Chamber of Pharmaceutical Laboratories (CILFA) welcomed the measure and denied that it was an opening of imports.
"It's good, it lowers the impact to finance high-cost medications, it's a change in tax regulation and elimination of perceptions," industry sources said.