The Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Nation, Juan José Bahillo, affirmed that the Government “is working on and analyzing” a proposal that encourages the liquidation of soybeans by producers, while rejecting the possibility of establishing in the short term, a “zero withholding” scheme for agricultural exports.
Speaking in the framework of a meeting of the Agriculture Commission of the Senate of the Nation, Bahillo rejected that the government “attacks the countryside” and highlighted the importance of the sector for the Argentine economy.
When asked about the possibility of implementing a differential change that speeds up the commercialization of the oilseed, the national official replied that “this issue is being worked on and analyzed.”
“I am not in a position nor can I make any announcement. The Liaison Table raised it in the meeting it held with the Minister (of Economy, Agriculture and Production, Sergio) Massa. This issue is being evaluated and there is a willingness to work on it and to give a favorable response,” added the official.
Bahillo said that “we must work on generating the macro conditions to generate reliability so that the uncertainty that is reflected in another type of dollar goes down.”
During the day, versions circulated in the agribusiness sector about the possibility that the government decides to apply a new temporary scheme in which the exchange rate for the settlement of soy becomes $200 per dollar, only during September.
In this regard, from the Chamber of the Oil Industry and the Cereal Exporters Center (Ciara-CEC), they assured that they had no news about this possibility.
“Regarding the latest rumours, we want to inform you that the government has not confirmed any decision and that, for the moment, we have no indications that they will introduce a special regime for exporters in September,” Ciara-CEC said in her online account. socialTwitter.
This Wednesday ended the validity of the tool known as the “soybean dollar” launched by the Central Bank last July, which allowed producers to access the purchase of the so-called “tourist dollar- up to a percentage equivalent to 30% of the liquidation and with The remaining 70% deposit it in a fixed term tied to the price of the currency.
Regarding the withholdings, Bahilo said that “the export right must be rethought comprehensively and responsibly.”
After which he warned that “today we cannot go to ‘zero withholdings’ if we are responsible in maintaining public accounts.”
“Initiatives must be taken to support public accounts, increase production and lower the tax pressure on producers in the primary sector,” added the secretary.
In this regard, he recognized that “the tax component is important” and proposed to the legislators “to do a job in this regard.”
“We must study what the cost matrix of our productive sectors should be. The tax must be progressive. It should be more for the patrimonial than for the commercial operation”, he underlined.
In addition, it revealed that “in general, in a very high percentage, the productive sectors are at the limit of their contributory capacity.”
In another section of the exhibition, after being consulted about the possibility of reconverting social plans into jobs for the agricultural sector, Bahillo advised “to be imaginative” and that this “must be done with an expanding economy.”
“I am convinced that people want work, they do not want plans. People do not want to lose the dignity of work, of their own income, of earning their own income. And he doesn’t want to depend on a political decision,” Bahillo stressed.
In another section of his presentation, the secretary ruled out that the fires that are registered in the islands of the Paraná Delta have been caused mainly by agricultural producers and related it to the severe drought that affects the region.
In this way, he contradicted the statements made on Tuesday by the Nation’s Environment Minister, Juan Cabandié, who had indicated that it cannot be “understood or accepted” that “pajonales are set on fire to expand the area of cattle to the detriment of ten million population”.
“I do not share Cabandié’s opinion,” said Bahillo when asked about the minister’s statements.
The secretary said that he was not “in a position to adjudicate the causality” of the fires and spoke of “objective natural conditions that favor” these outbreaks.
“The practice of burning pastures to renew in the fall or spring has practically been banished. I am convinced that the producers are not the biggest cause of this, ”he assured.
Before the start of the commission meeting, Bahillo held a meeting with the president of the interbloc of senators from Todos, José Mayans, who was accompanied by the president of the Citizen Unity Bloc, Juliana di Tullio, and the senator for Jujuy, Guillermo Snopeck.
