President Alberto Fernández announced that next Friday it will come into effect the plan for the financing and purchase of household appliances in 30 installments, known as Now 30and that next month an identical program of 42 payments aimed exclusively at retirees will be launched.
The plan includes a 90-day freeze on products included such as refrigerators, washing machines, cell phones, televisions, and low-consumption air conditioning equipment, all domestically produced, with a consumption limit of $200,000 and a financing rate of 48%. (TORCH).
The announcement came after a meeting of about 40 minutes that the President held in his office at the Casa Rosada with the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, in which both finished outlining details of the plan that will come into force on Friday throughout the country. country.
“This Friday the Now 30 plan for financing and purchasing appliances in 30 installments will come into force, which also freezes the prices of products for 90 days,” said the President in a thread on his Twitter account.
And he added: “The products will be of low consumption, allowing energy savings, and of national production, encouraging the growth of our industry.”
In turn, he announced that “in November we will add Now 42 for retirees: the same products but in 42 installments.”
This Friday the plan will come into force #Now30 of financing and purchase of household appliances in 30 installments, which also freezes the prices of products for 90 days.
I met with the minister of @Economia_Ar, @SergioMassato finish outlining the details. pic.twitter.com/iYXXC46Xhc
– Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) October 19, 2022
“The rate of both plans will be 48% and national banks, chains with physical premises and bank associations will participate”he claimed.
The cost of the fee is almost half of the current one in the financial system for the payment of credit card statements, which is currently 83% of the Annual Effective Rate (TEA).
In the case of air conditioning equipment, the objective of the measure is to promote the incorporation of efficient technologies that allow generating energy savings, according to official information.
The Secretary of Commerce, Matias Tombolini, assured CAME businessmen that all businesses that have a physical headquarters, whether small or large, will be able to participate in the program, as long as they register in the registry that the Secretariat will open for that purpose.
This measure will allow the purchase of cell phones to be refinanced at a subsidized rate, an item that was eliminated from Now 12 in October 2020, and renews the possibility of financing in 30 installments, an option that was included in the Now 12 program until February of this year and then it was removed.
The Ministry of Commerce pointed out that the program is not part of the Now 12 plan, since it will have a limited duration from its beginning and until the end of the year, and in principle it will not be renewed.
Until February of this year, Now 12 included the term of financing in 30 installments, but in that renewal this option was suppressed and the plans of 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 installments were maintained.
At that time it was explained that, according to the billing and sales volume data, it had been detected that the financing in 24 installments had had a sustained increase in the participation of the program since its incorporation, while the 30 installment modality represented less of one point of the total invoicing of the program since its incorporation, which motivated its elimination.
Meanwhile, cell phones were removed from the Now 12 program in October 2020 due to a “reallocation of resources.”
National Production
According to data from the Association of Argentine Electronics Terminal Factories (Afarte), in the first half of 2022 the electronics industry had a turnover of US$1,629 million and 5,375,742 cell phones, 1,369,857 televisions and 496,489 air conditioners were produced in Argentina.
In the same period, 4,223,723 cell phones were sold (72% mid-range, 21% low and 7% high), 1,051,773 televisions and 374,069 air conditioners.
96% of cell phones, air conditioners, microwaves, and electronics for your car that are marketed in Argentina are nationally produced.
In 2021, the electronics industry managed to recover production levels prior to the pandemic, with increases of up to 78% when compared to 2019; consumption, meanwhile, did not follow these increases and remained below the production variation percentages, especially in the areas of televisions and air conditioners, according to the Association.
