“The idea is to have an order and traceability of all imports from the moment that process begins, which does not exist today,” Sources from the Ministry of Commerce informed Ámbito. The scheme foresees that at the moment in which a SIMI declaration has been approved, the company will be informed in how much time (which can be 60 or 180 days) it has the possibility of being paid that SIMI. In principle, the impact of these operations that are agreed now will be felt next year.
The Central Bank does not participate in the implementation of the new monitoring system. There they affirm that the SIMI are administered from the secretariat managed by Matías Tombolini. They specify that “no quotas” for dollars, although companies have complained in the last two months that, despite having the procedures in order, the banks do not sell them the foreign currency because the system tells them that they are over the limit.
On August 26, while the recently appointed Minister Sergio Massa tried to deal with the problem of imports in the first meetings with businessmen, The BCRA announced that the scheme established by Communication A 7232, which was going to expire today, was extended until December 30. This measure says that companies that carry out category “A” imports can access official dollars for an amount not exceeding 105% of the monthly average of imports registered in 2021 or 70% of the 2020 average. SMEs have access to 115% . In the case of category “B”, financing must be negotiated with the supplier for 180 days.
In the entity they estimate that, in this way, so far this year the companies had to delay payments abroad for US $ 5,200 million. They qualify it as “commercial credit”, although such financing does not respond to the need of the private sector, but of the governing entity of the financial system that is urgently needed to accumulate reserves. In the case of luxury goods you have to wait up to a year.
Among the importers consulted by Ámbito, it is pointed out that the scheme that Massa is going to implement will give greater predictability to the procedures, although it will not remove the obstacles to importing. “You cannot import freely,” they explain. At least, they know that the companies will be clear on what day they will be able to go to the bank to buy the dollars. They consider that since there is traceability of the entire SIMI process, the local banks will not have excuses for not selling the currency, as has been the case up to now. In the financial entities that operate in foreign trade there is a BCRA terminal in which the data of the companies are loaded. If the system gives a “green light”, there is no problem; if it shows “yellow”, some aspect of the procedure must be corrected; and if it is “red”, the company cannot buy. The new SIMI scheme is expected to allow the importer to get the “green light” without problems.
Importers believe that, if this aspect is resolved, the control of imports will no longer be concentrated on tariff positions, but on companies and for this the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP) would come into play. In February of this year, the agency had paralyzed imports for more than 20 days through a recalculation of the index called “Financial Economic Capacity” (CEF), a polynomial formula that determines whether the dollars demanded by an importer is in accordance with its size and business flow. They assume that the controls from now on are going to be channeled through that side.
Source: Ambito
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