The Secretary of Industry, José Ignacio de Mendiguren, detailed the four measures for companies and monotributistas. He crossed businessmen critical of the fixed sum and anticipated that they will sit down with the IMF to discuss the request to cut imports.
The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, He called on his economic team to provide details on the package of measures announced on Sunday, to offset the effects of the devaluation. This time it was the turn of the Secretary of Industry, Jose Ignacio de Mendigurenwho detailed how the new lines of credit for companies and monotributistas will be, which will imply new financing by $250,000 million. In a press conference, he came to the crossroads of businessmen who criticize the payment of the fixed sum and anticipated that they will not comply with the IMF’s request to lower imports.
Regarding the reasons for the financing package, de Mendiguren explained: “Inflation is one of the issues that worries us the most. Within the margin that we have to move, we are left with the responsibility of maintain the level of activity to keep unemployment down and to be able to recover the purchasing power of the salary”. Despite the impact of the drought on activity, he reported that the industry was able to sustain itself during the first quarter, and is 12% above the pre-pandemic level.
4 measures for companies
“The political decision is to continue financing the productive sectors, with credits that will be 52 points below inflation,” he said. The financing program for companies and monotributistas will amount to $250,000 millionwhich will be added to the quota of one billion that was in force since the beginning of the year, so that the financing will amount to $1.25 trillionAs reported Tomas Canosaundersecretary of small and medium-sized enterprises, who provided the details together with Gabriel Vienni, chief of staff of the secretariat.
The four points will consist of: first, an increase of 11 percentage points in the rate bonus for productive investment for the financing lines of the Crear program. The destination will be for productive investment, available through the banking system. The second, a guarantee for SMEs of 100% of bank loans of up to $100 million per project, with an initial quota of $150,000 million. Interest rates will be up to 70%.
The third announcement consists of financing for monotributistas with lines guaranteed 100% by the State through Fogar, with an initial quota of $100,000 million. It will be up to $4 million, with a rate of 61% and it is estimated to reach 2 million people. They clarified that they will not block access to the exchange market, but they assured that the destination must be accredited for productive and non-financial purposes. As they officially explained, it will not be for monotributistas who have a job in a dependency relationship. And, finally, a single financial and economic file (LUFE) will be created to simplify access to credit for SMEs, as if it were a kind of “clinical history” of SMEs, in a project carried out with AFIP, BCRA and the Bank World.
Crosses with companies and IMF
During the press conference, de Mendiguren came out to the crossroads of the business chambers that criticized the fixed sum of $60,000: “I am going to speak as an industrial businessman. How can they not understand that purchasing power is the only thing that maintains activity levels? We can discuss forms, time, but not the law of gravity”, he stated. In addition, regarding the criticism that it is an interference in the private sector, he replied: “I have not heard it said that it is an interference when the State intervenes to give subsidized credit, non-reimbursable contributions or subsidized rates. As SMEs we have to be consistent, if at the worst moment that was 2020 they assisted us, now we have the obligation to contribute ”.
In addition, de Mendiguren also ruled out the IMF proposal that appears in the staff reports that imports collapse by 30% in the next four months. “We already know the things that the IMF says. Our political decision is not to drop the level of activity. The only way to be able to pay will be by growing and for that we are going to sit down with the IMF to discuss it, as it was with the gas pipeline, which they said was an expense, and now they should celebrate that we are going to have an energy surplus. When they ask us for things that we believe would have been very detrimental to the country, such as a 100% devaluation, we were able to negotiate and defend ourselves.”
Source: Ambito
