Peter Peretti: When Mauricio Macri went to China, journalistic notes denounced that there was a black hole, one of the reasons must be the issue of weighing.
Q.: What is the weigh-in like?
PP: When the ports were privatized in 1990, resolution 220 on weighing was issued. On October 3, 2017, during the Macri government, they changed it. There are two ways to weigh: one is with the balance and the other is, to put it one way, as the ship sinks (Draft-Survey). Both are exact, the problem is who manages it, that there is no control over it.
Q.: What would the maneuver be like, according to you?
PP: Macri gave them an incredible advantage. He told them that they can have up to 4% error in weighing, through the Draft-Survey system, when historically it was between 1% and 1.5%. He added three more points.
Q.: Do you know why?
PP: It’s because, if you add to that the ships’ ballast, fuel, and everything else, an estimated 10% of each ship’s weight slips out of sight. If one estimates that 4,000 ships entered the Port of Rosario and that 10% of that vanishes, 400 ships disappear from control. It is not that they pay less taxes, they disappear.
Q.: Can’t there be some mistake with that calculation? Can it be said that this 10% is always lost?
PP: We are making an estimate. This is a race between gamblers. If they give me four, it is not that I am going to take 1 and leave 3 to Cáritas. I don’t think Cargill and Dreyfus do that. If one takes into account the difference, when Macri went to China, between what the Chinese had accredited and what was accredited here, and that the Argentine statistics do not coincide with any country, there is clearly a maneuver.
Q.: Do you relate this to what the Minister of Economy, Martín Guzmán, raised at the G20 meeting?
PP: In that meeting, Guzmán stated that a solution must be found to tax avoidance, which is very important. A study by the Global Financial Integrity determined that 64% of the formation of foreign assets come from foreign trade and transactions between subsidiaries of the corporation. One finds that there is a network to avoid taxation in Argentina.
Q.: How would you say the agricultural business is in relation to taxation?
PP: Black is tall. I was looking at a report from engineers linked to the Front of All. They analyzed the 2020 bills of lading and found inconsistencies in 40% of them, which they estimated at between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.
Q.: It is assumed that if a part is exported that is not declared, a part of the grains would also have to arrive undeclared…
PP: Or for smuggling. The port of Dreyfus was closed and he continued to receive soybeans by barge. Private ports are colonial enclaves in Argentine territory where there is no other law than that of the owners.
Q.: In the ports the AFIP enters and controls.
PP: There the AFIP and the Customs enter and control, and that is the big business. They aspire to obtain the Customs stamp that says everything is ok.
Q.: And this resolution that allows a difference of 4% in weighing, has it been changed?
PP: From what I understand until a month ago nothing had changed. What did happen is that 60 days ago the AFIP began to implement the electronic consignment note.
Q.: How does that help prevent irregular grain trade?
PP: This document is for a single trip. It cannot be reused. Before they were used by one and another and others, and they made chains of bills of lading. Waybills were a tremendous business. With this, several agricultural organizations were financed for many years.
Q: Why?
PP: A part of the sale of bills of lading was held by the Argentine Agrarian Federation and another by the Federation of Stockpilers. The same guys who used them were the ones who sold them. Trout cards were sold by the thousands.
Q.: Can we expect the AFIP to intensify the control this year?
PP: If one sees the minister’s speech at the G20, it is clear that this has been part of the negotiation with the IMF. That is why we say metaphorically that a scale must be placed 50 meters before entering the ports.
Q.: Don’t you think that with the electronic Bill of Lading many of these problems are solved?
PP: A part yes. Then there is the handling of the numbers within the port according to how it suits you to present the numbers. That is very common. For this reason, going back to Macri’s trip, they found differences of US$4,000 million. Today that difference must have widened because, according to Miguel Pesce, the trade deficit with China last year was US$7 billion. The area where the differences are is in oil and seeds.
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
