Luis Ceriotto
09/03/2021 9:05
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 09/03/2021 12:28 PM
The Brazilian Tourism Minister,
Gilson Machado Neto
, said that "they are studying"
charging Brazilian tourists who come to Argentina a 30% surcharge
in retaliation for the application of the
PAIS
tax
for Mercosur countries.
Machado Neto had already been complaining about the issue, but now he is taking another step forward in the search for a sanction, just when Argentina
wants to go out to pay the passage to tourists from neighboring countries
.
"I would tell (Argentine tourists who want to travel to Brazil) to ask the president of Argentina to eliminate the 30% that he charges the Argentine who wants to travel abroad.
It is not democratic to
impose 30% on citizens who want to go to other countries, mainly Mercosur countries. So we
are studying also charging Brazilians who go to Argentina that 30%,
"said the Jair Bolsonaro official.
Machado Neto's statements took place this week, days after a meeting he had had with the Argentine ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli.
At that meeting, the Brazilian minister had already claimed for the application of the PAIS tax.
This tax, sanctioned in December, is the 30% levy on the purchase of foreign currency and which also applies
to credit card expenses abroad and to the purchase of tickets and tourist packages abroad
.
To this tax is added an
additional perception of 35%
, although not as a direct tax but as an "advance on account" of the Income Tax, with which the so-called "outbound tourism" ends up paying a "tourist" dollar that it is
80% more expensive than the official dollar
.
After that meeting between Machado Neto and Scioli, in mid-August, the Brazilian minister said in his press release that he had once again mentioned that the PAIS tax is
"harmful"
for Brazil.
Scioli did not mention it on Twitter where he made his own report of the meeting.
But instead he highlighted the importance of Brazilian tourism in Argentina as a generator of foreign exchange.
"We agree that the proximity between Argentina and Brazil will be the basis for the resumption of international travel,
with a potential of 11 million Brazilian tourists ready to travel
," the ambassador said in a tweet on August 16.
It is in this context that the Argentine Ministry of Tourism has "under analysis" the project of
giving Aerolineas Argentinas tickets to tourists from neighboring countries
, including Brazil, as long as they buy tour packages of
at least four nights within the country
. This measure could take effect as of next month and
would be financed with funds from INPROTUR
, which depends on the Tourism portfolio. But it is subject to the Cabinet Headquarters and the Ministry of Health lifting the restriction that
applies today to the arrival of foreign tourists
.
It was in this framework that Machado Neto redoubled the bet, with a view to getting the Alberto Fernández government to eliminate the PAIS tax on Argentines who want to spend the summer on the beaches of Brazil.
On Thursday, in Brasilia, Machado Neto was interviewed by the website La Derecha Diario, where he once again stated that charging a 30% tax for traveling abroad
"is not democratic
."
In a video in which that interview is reproduced, during the Conservative Action Convention (CPAC), Machado Neto interspersed the claim with his own analysis of a possible retaliation by his government against Alberto Fernández: "Who will benefit? ?
Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, "
said Machado Neto. And he added
: "
So, that (the Argentine government)
review that position of charging the Argentine citizen 30% of the expenses on the credit card for tickets to come to Brazil
." He said it in the style of his political boss: with his index finger raised, as a sign of warning.
