The situation due to the lack of dollars is increasingly pressing and the national government continues to toughen the restrictions for companies to access foreign currency. He automotive sector It is one of the most affected since it requires dollars to import parts and supplies as well as finished vehicles. It must be taken into account that more than 60% of the auto parts used to manufacture a vehicle come from abroad.
The most complicated item is that of 0 km since the Government sought to limit these imports for the benefit of national production.
In this way, it went from a market with 70% foreign vehicles and only 30% local manufacturing, in 2019, to almost the inverse relationship today with more than 60% of units sold leaving Argentine plants.
In this context, for three years, The Government has been managing the dollars for the automotive industry through the limitation of import permits.
In recent months, the release of these authorizations -known as SIRA- has become stricter and, in parallel, automakers have been asked to finance their own imports.
The mechanism that was in operation until last month established that factories had to use their own currencies to enter vehicles and wait 120 days for the State to release dollars at the official value, which is the exchange rate used to import and export.
However, the lack of reserves in the Central made the Secretary of Commerce modify the payment conditions. The novelty became known last week, when the Government authorized the release of permits to import. From now on, the term is 195 days. That is, the terminals have to be financed for a longer time.
The curious fact is that with this stretch of time – about six and a half months – the dollars at the official value for the cars that were allowed to be imported last week must be paid after the first week of December.
In this way, the next government will be in charge of dealing with that debt. In practice, the current management will no longer give dollars to automakers to import cars. From the automotive sector, they made this decision as a “mischief” to leave the commitment to the next management.
Although the companies accepted this mechanism, having no other alternative than to stop importing 0km, there is a lot of uncertainty about the actual collection of those dollars since they do not know who will take care of it or at what value it will take place.
Meanwhile, it is the parent companies that must face the financial cost of maintaining car imports in Argentina.
This schedule will be in effect until September 30. As of that date, the scheme that was in force until last month will return, with a period of 120 days to release the dollars. This is because the imports that are authorized from October will also require dollars at the official exchange rate for the new government.
With auto parts, the payment term of the 30 and 45 days that was in force, until a week ago, was extended to 75 days. Also as of September 30, the official promise will return to the previous term.
Source: Ambito
