05/28/2020 - 21:20
- Clarín.com
- Economy
- Economy
The BCRA's board of directors ordered that companies that have liquid assets originated in the formation of external assets must first have these resources to pay obligations abroad.
To certify the obligations provided, the presentation of a Sworn Statement will be required, which will be verified by crossing the bases of SEPAIMPO (System for Tracking Payment of Goods) and RIOC (Informative Regime of Exchange Operations), in case of falsehood , it will block access to the exchange market and the corresponding criminal exchange actions will be initiated.
This means that if the Central Bank considers that a company has liquid foreign currency abroad , it will not sell dollars to finance its import operations.
These measures are taken in a particular context . Many companies are demanding dollars from the Central Bank to settle import operations or to advance imports to anticipate a currency devaluation. Or because they ran out of lines of credit, because banks are sitting on their liquidity of dollars to face possible outflows of deposits. The BCRA's reserves are at $ 42,449 million, a loss of almost 1 billion in a month.
In addition, the decision coincides with the dissemination, two weeks ago, of a report that reviewed the exchange operations of the period 2015-2019, characterized, in the eyes of the Central Bank and Kirchnerism, as a period in which the called "capital flight" abroad.
On the other hand, the organization that Miguel Pesce conducts extended to 90 days prior and 90 days after the restriction to carry out operations of purchase and sale of public securities in local currency with settlement in foreign currency for companies that require access to the official exchange market. This virtually removes the companies from the MEP dollar or cash market.
Additionally, the board of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic established new measures for the access of companies to the Single and Free Exchange Market (MULC) in order to order the payment of obligations for the importation of goods. Companies must request prior authorization from the BCRA to access the exchange market for the payment of commercial obligations abroad if they reduced the amount in force as of January 1, 2020.
According to Central Bank sources, the Government is making significant efforts to assist companies affected by the crisis generated by COVID 19, through various instruments such as the Work and Production Assistance Program (ATP), the MiPyMEs credit with subsidized rate of 24% and the line of credits at rate 0% for monotributistas and self-employed. The purpose of the BCRA is to guarantee that these measures stimulate local work and production and avoid their abuse in the cancellation of obligations abroad.