merchants of the city Leap launched a dissemination campaign to promote the idea of replacing part of the salaries received by those who live in the border department with Argentina for food tickets, in order to discourage purchases from the other side of the Uruguay River as a consequence of the exchange difference.
The proposal was presented to the senators official Sergio Botana and German Coutinho by members of the Commercial and Industrial Center of Salto and it consists of part of the salaries of public and private employees being paid through food tickets.
In this way, workers instead of having Uruguayan pesos that they can change to dollars and, in Argentina, use them at the blue dollar price to take advantage of the exchange difference in supermarkets, they would be captive of making their purchases in the departments of the coast Uruguayan.
To compensate for this negative aspect, the Salto merchants suggested that the tickets have fiscal benefits so that its reach is greater in local businesses.
The exchange difference opens a crack in the ruling party
Senators Botana and Guido Manini Rios harshly criticized, last week, the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) for the “absolutely ineffective” actions carried out to alleviate the situation on the Uruguayan coast, which has the indices of unemployment highest in the country (15%).
“As long as the problem of prices on the Uruguayan side is not attacked, smuggling will not be fought, even if a policeman is placed next to the other at the border,” Botana said at the meeting with the leaders of the Salto commercial chamber in the Senate.
The legislator of National Party (NP) recalled the bill presented in 2021 that proposed the tax break and the authorization to micro import as two useful and necessary courses of action.
When dealing with fiscal issues, the project must have the prior endorsement of the MEF, with which Botana was especially critical. “I think there’s a quietism It’s out of fear,” he said.
For his part, the leader of Open Town Hall (CA), warned that “we cannot continue dealing with such a serious situation with economic orthodoxy”.
In Uruguay “everything is very expensive”, Manini Ríos complained and questioned that the only price control measure has been that of the “ironed dollar”, which has resulted in the current situation that border trade is experiencing, which is barely “surviving”.
Source: Ambito
