Controversy is growing due to the
increase in rural real estate
in the province of Buenos Aires: producers propose not paying the rate and it even went to court.
The lawyer and livestock producer from San Vicente,
Agustín Arechavala
, presented this Tuesday a declaratory demand for certainty (similar to an amparo) against the province of Buenos Aires.
"I decided to do it given the absurd increase we received. I see that the union channel and the treasury's search for sanity did not work until now and one is not going to stop losing rights when there is a situation like this," he commented to
Clarín Rural.
Agustín Arechavala, livestock producer from San Vicente.
The producer, who is the fourth generation and is dedicated to livestock farming on 120 hectares, assured that
the objective of the lawsuit is for a Judge to give some clarity about the position of the tax
.
"The demand is also based on some statements that I present based on errors in the technical values that the San Vicente party has in particular, which already pays an expensive tax for a rule by Daniel Scioli that resembles urban developments, such as neighborhoods closed and countries, with productive fields, he pointed out.
According to what he said, the bill that he received was $800,000 against the $100,000 that he had paid in March 2023. "It's crazy. It
affects us seriously because we come from a drought that generated losses for us
. If we had to pay this tax, one would have have to leave aside the possibility of creating a job for some new staff or hiring a particular service," he explained.
Meanwhile, during the assembly that was held on Monday in the town of Salto, where there were more than 100 producers, they raised
the possibility of not paying the first installment
that is due this week since they warned that increases that varied between 200 % up to 500%.
They argued that there are no resources to pay to do so because the thick harvest has not yet arrived and because they are coming from a fairly pronounced dry season.
And they warned that if this problem is not resolved in the coming days,
they will ask to hold a massive assembly
in the center of the Buenos Aires province to see the steps to follow.
The official explanation
According to sources from the Ministry of Agrarian Development, the law provided for an increase in the tax base of 300%, but there were segmentations.
Thus, the maximum increases established by the rule regarding the tax rate paid in 2023 are: 140% for land free of improvements of up to $3,544,400;
180% between $3,544,400 to $8,127,288, inclusive;
190% between $8,127,288 and $19,986,324;
200% of $19,986,324 up to $198,940,000 of tax value.
Above $198,940,000 of tax value the limit is 300%.
According to official data, of the 300,000 games, 2,000 (0.6%) have a 300% limit.
One of the producers' requests was that
the bonuses for compliance with the payment of the rate and the accession of the automatic debit should return
, but from the Buenos Aires agricultural portfolio they assured that they prefer to increase less than inflation (from February 2022 to February 2023 it is 276%) and remove those benefits.
"Many compare invoice against invoice, but you have to compare with the original amount, and not against the amount with bonuses," they clarified.
From the agricultural portfolio they insist on
analyzing ballot by ballot because they deny that there have been errors by the Collection Agency of the Province of Buenos Aires
(ARBA).
According to what they said, Arba received 150 ballots for review and the Ministry received 35, but they assured that in all cases the increase was well applied.
From the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs they assured that they are willing to meet with the different entities again (they already did it the previous week) and look at each case.