President Javier Milei had to
resign several of the fundamental articles
of his Omnibus Law project to obtain the support of the dialogue opposition and seek half-sanction from the Chamber of Deputies while waiting for the Senate to complete the legislative process before the 15th. February when the extraordinary period will close.
Among the points that the ruling party had to resign are the public emergencies that were reduced from 11 to 6 with the possibility of them remaining at 5 if the deputies of the UCR, We Make the Federal Coalition and the provincial blocs reject the measures demanded by Minister Patricia Bullrich .
But the main blow was received when Minister Luis Caputo had to lower the entire fiscal chapter.
Nor could it move forward with applying withholdings to regional economies, nor did it have room for political reform and it had to readjust its privatization plan.
delegated powers
In Chapter II of Title I, the text of the Law declares "the public emergency in economic, financial, fiscal, pension, security, defense, tariff, energy, health, administrative and social matters until December 31, 2025" and establishes that "said period may be extended by the national Executive Branch for a maximum period of two years."
In the debate in committee, some of the emergencies were eliminated, leaving those of defense and health by the wayside, while in the last modification
it was reduced to 6
: economic, financial, security, tariffs, energy and administrative, but the security title could be removed from the project.
Initially, the Government set a deadline until December 31, 2025" and establishes that "this deadline may be extended by the national Executive Branch for a maximum period of two years." But as part of the negotiation with the opposition
, limited the term and was set at 1 year
with the possibility of extending it for another year but with authorization from Congress.
Tax chapter eliminated
The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, was in charge of announcing the elimination of the fiscal chapter and dismissed them as key issues of the Government's economic plan to reduce the deficit.
In the original project, Javier Milei eliminated the current mobility formula and proposed increases by decree.
Faced with resistance from the opposition, the Executive had agreed to establish a formula adjusted for inflation, but which would begin to apply from April.
An agreement was never reached because the dialogueists warned that the income of retirees would be affected.
The issue of withholdings was removed from this chapter, as the Government wanted to force all regional economies and industries to pay 15% for export duties.
It also increased soy by-products, such as flour and oil, from 31% to 33%.
The governors warned that the measure would affect the economies of their provinces
Nor could it advance with money laundering, which in the proposal allowed up to US$100,000 in cash, real estate or cryptocurrencies to be regularized without paying taxes.
The governors intended for it to be shared because there were taxes that were going to reach the provinces and that with the tax forgiveness they were not going to receive them.
When the tax chapter was lowered, the moratorium was also eliminated, which promoted a regime of regularization of tax, customs and social security obligations.
Regarding Personal Assets, the project proposed an advance payment of this tax for obligations of the next four years and a gradual reduction in the rates.
And
the Earnings reform was left out,
which he tried to rename as Personal Income Tax and which was established for gross salaries from $1,250,000 in the case of singles without children, and a little less than $1,900,000 in the case of married people. with children.
One of the most discussed topics is the law's privatization plan.
The Government had to go back on its list of 40 companies by removing YPF and
establishing that other companies, such as Arsat, Nucleoeléctrica and Banco Nación, could not become 100% privatized
but rather that other companies could become joint ventures.
Finally, with the opinion, they agreed that 27 companies will be subject to privatization, among which are Aerolíneas Argentinas, Correo Argentino, Ferrocarriles Argentinos, Belgrano Cargas and public media among others.
In addition, the Government accepted that privatizations be segmented and the creation of a bicameral monitoring commission that will not be binding.
The Government also had to cancel the title “Consolidation of national public sector debt”, linked to the Sustainability Guarantee Fund that the Government wanted to transfer to the Treasury for the total cancellation of intra-public sector debts.
In addition, those instruments linked to company shares may be sold to accumulate foreign currency.
But to move forward with this process, it had to have a prior favorable opinion from the Bicameral State Reform Commission and from the monitoring of privatizations.
Elimination of electoral reform and security changes
Milei was also unable to advance with a broad electoral reform that included the incorporation of single-member constituencies, the elimination of PASO and the updating of the composition of the Chamber of Deputies.
It was decided that everything would be discussed in the ordinary period, which will begin in March.
Another of the articles that was removed is 331 of the Omnibus Law, which required requesting authorization for a demonstration and defined that it was the “intentional and temporary congregation of three or more people in a public space.”
To complete, the articles that affected the Fishing Law and the idea of modifying the Burning Law were eliminated and an article was incorporated that guarantees resources for the Forest Fund.