The Minister of Economy, Martin Guzmanwill attend this Monday the Chamber of Deputies together with the senior staff of that portfolio to present before the Budget and Treasury Commission on the draft agreement between Argentina and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reschedule the payments of the loan contracted by the former president Mauricio Macri.
According to what Télam was able to learn from official sources, the meeting of that commission will begin at 2:00 p.m. and, in addition to Guzmán, the chief of the Cabinet of Ministers will participate, John Manzur; the head of the Central Bank, Miguel Pesce; the Secretary of the Treasury, Raul Rigoand the Argentine representative before the IMF, Sergio Chodosamong other officials.
Meanwhile, the president of the Budget and Treasury Committee of the lower house, Charles Hellerof the Front of All (FdT), organized this Sunday a meeting between Guzmán and the deputies that make up the Budget and Treasury and Finance commissions to define the questionnaire and the official strategy before the presentation that the official will make this Monday.
That meeting was attended by ruling party legislators such as Daniel Arroyo, Leander Santoro, Marcelo Casaretto, Victoria Tolosa Paz, Julio Pereira and German Martinezthe head of the FdT bloc, in addition to the body’s president, Serge Massaamong others.
The work schedule agreed between the Front of All (FdT), Together for Change (JxC) and the Federal and United Provinces interblocks established that union representatives and businessmen will attend on Tuesday and that the internal debate will take place in those commissions on Wednesday.
The agreement and its treatment in Congress
The objective of the ruling party is to sign an opinion that same Wednesday, so that the project can be discussed by the plenary of the Lower House in a special session that would be requested for Thursday or, at the latest, Friday.
The agreement between Argentina and the IMF entered the Chamber of Deputies last Friday, consists of 137 pages and is divided into four documents: the bill with four articles, the message from the Executive Power signed by the president Alberto Fernandez and two annexes attached.
This is the first time that an agreement with the IMF has been sent to Congress for approval.
According to the letter of the project sent to Parliament, the new program -called Extended Facilities- has a duration of 2 and a half years in terms of the commitments assumed, and consists of a refinancing of the debt taken in 2018 during the Macri administration.
The agreement will have 10 reviews and they will be quarterly with disbursementswhile the payment of the same will be between 2026 and 2034, which implies 4 and a half years “without sacrificing” money from Argentina to pay debt in these two and a half years, official sources highlighted.
Through the message sent to the Chamber of Deputies, the Executive Branch appealed to the “institutional responsibility of each and every one of the deputies and senators” to request “the urgent treatment of this bill.”
This is the Extended Facilities Program for the purpose of refinancing the existing debt between Argentina and the IMF, made up of the “Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies” and the “Technical Memorandum of Understanding”, as well as the corresponding annexes.
On Tuesday, the Budget and Finance Commission will receive representatives of the unions (General Confederation of Labor and Central of Argentine Workers); of social movements, of business entities, grouped in the General Business Confederation of the Argentine Republic (CGERA), the Assembly of Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (APYME), and the Group of 6 (UIA, Camarco, CAC, ADEBA, SRA and the Stock Exchange).
Likewise, the governors will also be invited so that they can present their opinions on the agreement.
On Wednesday, as previously agreed, it will be the turn of the internal debate of the plenary of the two commissions, a scenario that involves 49 legislators for the Budget and Treasury and 31 for Finance, which will be formally constituted on Monday at 1:00 p.m.
The opinion that obtains the largest number of signatures will be the first to be considered in the session on Thursday or Friday.
