In the last hours, the government made a series of announcements referring to social benefits and measures to mitigate the impact on price increases. The measures include an increase in family allowances and the Uruguay Social card, VAT discounts, a freeze in the price of supergas and a 50% reduction in the recharge rate for MIDES beneficiaries, a reduction in tariffs for the importation of oils and flours and in the LATU rate for food, and temporary employment subsidy for people who did not work in the last semester.
After the announcements, the Frente Amplio senator Mario Bergara said that some measures have finally appeared that focus on the most vulnerable sectors of society.
In any case, “these are late measures, and insufficient, because they are very small amounts, such as the 1,500 pesos per child that help some families, but the 4% increase in transfers are very marginal figures of 50 or 100 pesos per month. , which will not imply any solution”.
“The measure of freezing the price of supergas is fine, but unfortunately it is done after it has risen by about 50%, and there are other measures that are not focused, such as the reduction of tariffs for some products that in theory are in the right direction, but we do not know the impact because they would impact after the imports are processed, which takes time and, furthermore, nothing guarantees that the State’s waiver of charging tariffs will later be transferred and reach the price of the goods in the market. warehouse or in supermarkets, so the impact of these measures is uncertain,” added the legislator.
insufficient measures
Bergara said that “it gives the impression that the government is taking insufficient, small and belated measures, when it has no other choice and when it is surrounded by the demands of society and the political system demands measures from it.”
“They are not measures that have a dimension that allows us to foresee a substantial improvement in the most needy sectors,” he said.
