The former president of Central Bank (BCRA), Alejandro Vanolisupported the implementation of the Argentine Digital Currency (MDA) proposed by the Minister of Economy and official candidate Sergio Massa and considered that it will allow “combat tax evasion” and “prevent fraud“.
“It has advantages for the State in the sense that combat tax evasion and helps prevent a whole series of frauds like money laundering because all operations are recorded and the information is perfectly traceable,” said Vanoli in radio statements.
In turn, the former official explained that the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDC), is a practice that “began to be discussed in the world for at least 10 years” and there are already “more than 50 countries that are in the implementation phase” among them, Sweden, China and Brazil.
Argentine Digital Currency: austerity vs. printing cost
According to Vanoli’s statements, beyond the fact that the measure is “aligned with technological development”, the MDA will allow “reducing the costs of the entire payment system”, since issuing banknotes “is expensive” and they deteriorate. Likewise, the former official highlighted the use of virtual wallets, which is growing in Argentina.
According to the former official, the digital currency “would remain a state national currency“, with the only difference that people “would have them deposited in an account.”
So far, there are “two models” of digital currency, one through which “all citizens have an account at the Central Bank“, and another that uses “banking system accounts“Although he clarified that it will require a gradual implementation process.
“The Chinese case is very interesting because they do it gradually for some operations of a certain size or in some regions of the country. All this so that people learn and become familiar with this system,” said the economist.
To implement it in Argentina, the fact is added that “there is a lot of work left to generate the technological support for these operations” and that “There are areas where there is no good connectivity“, in addition to the fact that it is necessary to “fight the black economy.”
“I imagine that in a period of 10 years the use of electronic money will probably be very widespread. In the last 10, for example, cell phone payments and their use, especially by young people, became very widespread,” he commented.
According to sources from the Ministry of Economyfinancial simplification and tax reduction are the two main objectives of the implementation of the MDA.
Source: Ambito
