The senator and leader of Open Town Hall (CA), Guido Manini Rios, He maintained that the debt restructuring project of individuals promoted by his party is necessary since the indebtedness in Uruguay it is a “pressure cooker” for many citizens; and assured that they will not “relax” in their intentions to have it approved in the Parliament.
The new lobbying initiative is a reformulation of the previous project presented by the party to try to address a problem that affects 1 million Uruguayans, and that prevents their access to consumer credit. The previous text was “boxed” by his partners in the official coalition, and now the sector led by Manini Ríos seeks his approval with a renewed project, even making it a condition of his permanence in government. In addition, They do not rule out advancing through the plebiscite route in case of not obtaining a response in the Chambers of Deputies and Senators.
Meanwhile, in the political system the CA initiative generated surprise, since there is agreement that the proposed provisions remove any possibility of reaching the necessary agreements for its approval; and, therefore, it also jeopardizes a very fragile truce with the parties that make up the Multicolored Coalition.
Faced with this, Manini Ríos, in his weekly column on Radio Oriental, took care to point out that the problem of the over-indebtedness of thousands of Uruguayans constitutes a “pressure cooker” that, if it doesn’t have an exhaust valve soon, it will end up “popping”. In this sense, he warned that something similar to what happened in Chile could happen, when between October 2019 and March 2020 there was a “social outbreak” in protest against the increase in public rates.
In this regard, the lobbying senator recalled that the current situation of indebted Uruguayans was caused by lenders “protected by a law of Broad Front” which, he said, authorized the charging of interest of up to 200%, in reference to the current law on interest rates and usury.
“Half of Uruguay is buried up to its hands and cannot fulfill its commitments, cooked up by leonine interests,” he pointed out, highlighting the importance of the project presented by his party to deal with this situation, while questioning whether the political system as a whole has not so far taken responsibility for the problem.
A benefit for debtors and financiers
The new Cabildo Abierto project is based on the concept of “fair debt”. If what the lobbyists want is approved, the debt to be restructured will be fixed in the initial capital lent transformed into indexed units, with 2% annual interest, fines and surcharges. What the debtor has paid will be subtracted from that value.
It is on this basis that the debt restructuring. In this sense, Manini Ríos assured that the financial system itself will benefitby being able to recover at least part of the money owed that, otherwise, they could not reconsider.
The lobbying leader also defended the establishment of maximum limits on the interest that can be charged for the credits. His formula states that they cannot exceed four times the rate at which the State borrows in national currency or three times in foreign currency.
“Cabildo Abierto came to national politics to talk about issues that touch powerful interestswho react in the most hostile way against a party that bothers, and a lot”, concluded Manini Ríos.
Source: Ambito
