The advisor to the national government, Federico Sturzenegger, He came out today to respond to the concepts of the former head of the General Directorate of Customs, William Michel, and denied that the restitution of Income Tax for the fourth category and the increase in withholdings is a “tax”, but rather it is a “tax substitution” that will result in lower inflation.
“There is a very big fallacy, a lie in what Michel said, because spending is financed by the Central Bank, and if there is spending, it is paid either with taxes or with inflation. Inflation is a tax, but the cruelest of everyone because those who have the least pay for it,” said Sturzenegger this morning in dialogue with Radio Miter.
For the advisor, who collaborated in the drafting of DNU 70/2023, what there is, in reality, is a “tax substitution.”
“We are going to collect these formal taxes to stop collecting the inflation tax. The inflation tax is replaced by more genuine ones that are better distributed throughout society as a whole. These are fallacies that have allowed Kirchnerism to leave these levels of inflation and poverty,” added Sturzenegger, a former official in the governments of Fernando de la Rúa and Mauricio Macri.
Michel had pointed out that, between the measures taken by the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, and the bill that will be sent to Congress in extraordinary sessions, there is a “substantial increase in fiscal pressure.”
“If we want to put the adjective ‘tax’, It’s a name that can be given,” he said on the same radio station.
The former head of Customs pointed out that with the increase in withholdings on exports there will be an additional collection of 0.9 points of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), equivalent to US$ 5.2 billion on an export projection of US$ 90,000 million for the year. next period.
He mentioned as an example that corn will pay from 12% to 15%, automobiles from 4.5% to 15% and peanuts from 0% to 15%.
In particular, he considered the equating of withholdings on soybeans to oil and flour at 33% as something “incorrect”, by “removing the possibility of industrialization” from the sector.
On the other hand, he stated that the restitution of the Income Tax to workers and retirees – whose fourth category was eliminated in a reform approved by Congress last October – “will imply an increase of 0.45 points of GDP in tax pressure.” .
“There are 900,000 workers who stopped paying who would pay again with an average of $300,000 of net out-of-pocket salary that they would lose,” he indicated.
All of these measures, along with the lack of extension of the Buy Without VAT program that “returns an average of almost $18,800 per month per person” impact “2.36 points of GDP,” according to Michel.
“Here an adjustment was chosen in three ways: a significant devaluation that implies a liquefaction of spending, a reduction in real spending such as public works and transfers to provinces, and an increase in fiscal pressure,” said the former official.
For Michel, “there were other options” to cover the deficit such as “the swap with China that would bring relief until the harvest dollars enter in April.”
As a whole, the measures taken, he indicated, “affect the purchasing power of workers and retirees,” and “remove the competitiveness of regional economies such as peanuts, milk and wine.”
On the other hand, he questioned whether, among the projects included in extraordinary measures, “tax benefits for multinational companies such as Japanese ones and those based in Luxembourg” are included.
“This implies that more Income Tax will be charged to an SME from Berazategui than to a multinational based in Luxembourg. This is inconsistent,” he indicated.
Michel did not deny that he has had conversations to continue in charge of Customs during the current administration, but he pointed out that there are “differences” with the position of the current Government such as those he raised on tax matters.
Source: Ambito
