Annabella Quiroga
08/06/2020 - 8:52
- Clarín.com
- Economy
- Economy
So far this year the PAIS tax - which charges the purchase of dollars with 30% - raised $ 67,723 million . And the three rounds of the Emergency Family Income (IFE) add up to public spending of $ 270 billion. Thus, this tax contributes 1 out of every 4 pesos that are spent on the payment of the $ 10,000 bonus. With the quarantine and the currency gap expanding, the number of people buying dollars for hoarding went from 500,000 a month in the summer to more than 4 million in July.
Starting next Monday, ANSES will start paying the third round of the IFE.It will be a new disbursement of $ 10,000 for each of the 9 million people included in this program.With this round, the State will have allocated this subsidy to assist the most vulnerable families in the midst of the $ 270 billion pandemic . This amount implies that what is collected by the PAIS tax covers 24% of that expense.
The IFE started as an exceptional measure and was consolidated with the extension of the quarantine. Month by month, the Government analyzes whether or not it continues based on how economic activity and social humor move. Now the axis is to define whether there will be a fourth installment of the IFE or will be passed to another , more limited social aid scheme , as a basic income for the most vulnerable unemployed and families.
On the other hand, the PAIS tax came with the assumption of Alberto Fernández as a complement to the exchange stock that allows to buy only US $ 200 per month and per person. The full name is imposed for an Inclusive and Solidarity Argentina (PAIS), with what already implies in its title that the collection of this tribute would be used to implement social policies .
With the extension of the quarantine, this tribute was transformed into a pillar of the collection , which this year is suffocated by the fall in activity.
In July, tax revenues fell 13.1% in real terms, that is, discounting the impact of inflation in that period. This negative result was repeated in all taxes, except two. One was Personal Assets , which concentrated in the month that just ended the payments of maturities of shareholdings and company participations and thus rose 338% against the previous year, to raise $ 9,240 million.
The other was the PAIS tax, which contributed to the general collection in that month more than double that of Personal Assets. A report by the consulting firm LCG indicates that the Country Tax added $ 20,000 million in July, $ 6,000 million more than in June and $ 12,000 million more than the average for the first half of this year. "In the month, it contributed 4% of the interannual growth of total resources , a contribution similar to that made jointly by the export and import duties," the consultant states.
The growth of the collection by the PAIS tax jumped with the quarantine. In the summer, the new tax and the jump in the dollar limited purchases, which did not exceed 500,000 people per month . But with isolation, family spending on entertainment and transportation fell, and the margin went up to go to the dollar / treasury. At the same time, the pandemic fueled the trend towards savings , given the uncertainty ahead. On this the exchange gap was mounted, which encouraged to seek coverage in fear of a devaluation, but also to stretch the yield of the pesos buying in the official and selling in the blue. Thus, there were months in which you could pocket up to an additional $ 7,000 with this roll.
This caused that according to data from the Central Bank, 3.3 million people bought dollars in June. And according to market estimates, more than 4 million did so in July. That month, the PAIS tax raised $ 20,017 million, 41% more than the previous month.
Interestingly, IFE beneficiaries also took advantage of this roll to stretch the bond and convert the original $ 10,000 of the bond through $ 16,000 or $ 17,000 through the "mash". Thus they ended up feeding the same tax that finances them.
