The economic crisis of Argentina and the exchange difference what this causes with Uruguay They continue to increasingly harm the coastal departments, which see sales fall precipitously as the year progresses due to the diversion or flight of consumption to the other side of the border. For this reason, businessmen from Leap and councilors of Paysandu they claimed for greater measures to the national government to mitigate the impact of the present in the neighboring country.
The price gap with Argentina reached its highest historical record in the last 20 years in September, reaching 180% without considering the significant devaluation that the neighboring country suffered in the first days of October and which, therefore, increased the exchange difference. At the same time, the sales of the businesses in Paysandú and Salto fell 22% between January and September of this year. For those who live day to day on the coast, the commercial and employment situation is unsustainable, and little can be expected from Argentina in terms of stabilization, at least in the short term.
This is why, on the one hand, the councilors of Paysandú raised before parliament the possibility of receiving fiscal benefits through the application developed by Antel, Tuapp, that the government already uses for the food basket benefits of the Ministry of Social Development (Mides).
For the Sanduceros, the “only solution” that they understand is feasible for the problem that the entire Uruguayan border is experiencing “is a tax intervention, because the marketing margins of companies are increasingly slim” in an environment of commercial competition very strong that prevents them from continuing to lower marketing margins due to the ventures themselves, mostly small and medium businesses.
In this sense it is that the councilor Alejandro Colacce proposed to use Tuapp to receive VAT and Imesi discounts in certain products of the basic family basket, regardless of whether the person is a Mides user or not. The idea is for it to be a widespread measure in multiple participating businesses, on products linked to the subsistence needs of a family.
The objective is to promote domestic consumption, sustain commercial activity and protect employment in the department. And to do this, the national government’s measures have to reach the people’s pockets, they maintain, not with the idea of solving the problem—something that, they know, will not be possible—but with the purpose of alleviating a complex situation.
Salto’s proposals
For their part, in Salto it was the businessmen and merchants who mobilized to demand specific aid measures as well as long term measures that allow Uruguayan trade to be competitive and not depend on the situation on the border.
According to the representative of the business group Jump in Motion, Rodolfo Germanothe department specifies two specific measures: the approval of the bill that enables the microimport and the regulation of fuel price.
In relation to the first proposal, the businessman stated that in 2021 the senators Sergio Botana and Guido Manini Ríos They presented a bill to Parliament to enable micro-importation, in order to “eliminate the monopolies that exist in the country” and reduce retail prices. But the initiative did not prosper “because it harms some private monopolistic importers in Uruguay”, said the businessman, despite the fact that its approval would allow certain products to be “cheaper.”
In relation to the second proposal, Germano indicated that the department needs to “regulate the price of fuel and set a margin so that they are 20% more expensive in Salto than in Concord because no one goes (to Argentina) just to add fuel,” he said. With the two proposals “the Salteño is going to do the math to cross to Argentina, “They’re not going to give it to him and he’s going to stay consuming here,” he said.
Source: Ambito
