Pablo Novillo
11/20/2020 13:00
Clarín.com
Cities
Updated 11/20/2020 2:43 PM
The political fight between the national government and the administration of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta for the removal of the federal co-participation, plus the recession aggravated by the quarantine, will have an
impact on the pockets of Buenos Aires
.
To make up for the loss of funds, the City will begin to charge them a 1.2% tax on
expenses made with credit cards
.
In addition, it will raise the tax burden for some financial operations, renegotiate contracts to lower costs and
suspend almost all public works
.
This was confirmed by the Buenos Aires government, which, through the Ministry of Finance and Finance, announced that the City Budget for next year "will be contingency with a strong reduction in public spending."
And he justified it by stating that "different actions promoted by the national government
seek to seriously affect
the autonomy and finances of the City."
The main change is that it is proposed to charge a 1.2% Stamp Tax on all purchases made with a credit card.
It will be applied directly
to the total of the monthly summary
.
Does not include debit card consumptions.
Waste collection, one of the contracts that the City wants to renegotiate.
(Andres Perez Moreno)
With this load, they seek to raise $ 7.7 billion annually.
The Buenos Aires government justified the decision by ensuring that this tax is
already charged in the province of Buenos Aires
and in other districts, such as Tucumán, Córdoba, Mendoza, Chaco, San Luis and Tierra del Fuego.
Meanwhile, the Gross Income exemptions for
the purchase of Leliqs and repo transactions between financial entities will
be eliminated
: with these two measures they will seek to collect $ 10,600 and $ 1,392 million respectively.
Can you cause banks to pass
this new cost on to their customers
?
"Each financial entity will resolve it," responded in the Buenos Aires government.
With these three tax changes the City aims to raise an additional $ 19.7 billion.
But since it must compensate for a drop of $ 52,000 million, the greatest effort will have to be made with the
reduction of public spending
, in itself demanded by what the pandemic demands.
In this sense, it was decided to suspend almost all infrastructure projects, a measure that undoubtedly represents a bitter pill for Rodríguez Larreta, and perhaps
the greatest contrast to his first term
, where he became politically strong with works such as the Paseo del Bajo or the viaducts.
Due to lack of funds, the City will stop investments in the subway network.
Photo: Roberto Aveledo / Zuma Press
What projects will you slow down or slow down?
more than 20 investments in the subway network
(from the purchase of wagons to improvements in electrical power),
the transfer of the Devoto prison
, the enhancement of the Alvear theater, the project for the Innovation Park in Núñez, the development of the Young District in the Costanera Norte and the urbanization of the Hacienda Mercado property once the move of the cattle complex to Cañuelas is completed.
There will also be no new Metrobus or bicycle lanes.
It will also slow down the purchase of equipment for the Police, although in the City they assure that spending on Security will be protected, as well as on Health, Education and Social Development.
The other source of the adjustment will be
the renegotiation of public service contracts
, some of them multi-million dollar.
Among others, waste collection, maintenance of hospitals and public spaces, and private security services in different institutions.
In addition, the Buenos Aires government is going to
return offices
that it rents today, to reduce operating costs.
That will force him to consolidate the
home office
as a method of work among state employees.
Meanwhile, the Buenos Aires authorities announced that joint negotiation should take place in this context of adjustment, and they promise that the highest salaries will be those that make "the greatest effort."
The Budget, Tax Code and Tax Law package, the three rules that define the resources and expenses of the Buenos Aires State, entered the Legislature this Friday.
Normally, the Executive must present it at the end of September.
But this year it was delayed, precisely because on September 9, President Alberto Fernández announced that he was going to reduce by decree the federal co-participation that the Nation passes to the City to compensate for the expense for the transfer of the Federal Police: from 3, 5% to 2.32%.
The closure of businesses and the fall in economic activity harm the City's collection.
Photo: Juano Tesone.
That meant that this year the City already stopped receiving $ 13,000 million.
In addition to the drop in its own collection due to the crisis caused by the pandemic, the treasury suffered
a drop of $ 80,000 million
compared to what was estimated for the year.
To the announcement of the withdrawal of the co-participation, Rodríguez Larreta responded with a lawsuit before the Supreme Court for what they understand was an
"unconstitutional"
decree
signed by the President.
For the moment, the Court did not comment on the matter.
But the situation could worsen for the Buenos Aires treasury.
Because Kirchnerism will promote this Friday in Congress the law to further reduce the co-participation that the City receives: it would return to the 1.4% it had before the presidency of Mauricio Macri.
The reduction of coparticipation would already be $ 52,000 million next year.
If the aforementioned law is approved, that loss would
climb to $ 65,000 million
.
How would that extra adjustment be compensated for?
It is not yet defined.
For now, the Buenos Aires government is betting that the Supreme Court will grant it an appeal for protection.
Also, that the law that deepens the removal, which already has half approval from the Senate, does not progress in Congress.
"If that happens and we recover the funds that correspond to the City, our commitment is to reverse the adjustment measures," said the Buenos Aires Minister of Finance, Martín Mura.
PN