The Senate of the Nation began to analyze the 2023 Budget project at a meeting of the Budget and Treasury Commission, which was attended by officials from the Ministry of Economy, and the ruling party will seek to issue an opinion on it tomorrow to take it to the site during the third week of November.
The hearing that took place in the Blue Room of the Legislative Palace was attended by the secretaries of the Secretaries of Economic Programming, Gabriel Rubinstein; of Treasury, Raúl Rigo; and Finance, Eduardo Setti; members of the Ministry of Economy headed by Sergio Massa.
The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, was not present at the meeting, despite the request made on Tuesday by the opposition interbloc of Together for Change to explain the initiative.
In the Senate, the initiative could be brought to the floor within two weeks, since the presence of the Chief of Staff, Juan Manzur, is expected to present his management report in seven days.
For it, the ruling party needs to obtain the majority opinion that will be signed this Thursdaywhen the Commission chaired by Ricardo Guerra from La Rioja meets again at 3:00 p.m.
This Wednesday, for almost four hours, the legislators of the Front for All and Together for Change listened to the description of the Budget project provided by Rubinstein, Rigo and Setti.
“Political leaders should recognize the different mistakes that led us to lose reserves, to get into debt and to have very high deficits”Gabriel Rubinstein
“I consider it totally realistic and feasible to lower inflation to 60 percent, doing separate things in fiscal policy. We are not immersed in a stabilization plan”Rubinstein said before the senators who make up the commission.
In addition, he mentioned that “when we talk about 60 or 70 inflation, we are flirting with the hyper, but we reduce that risk through different actions.”
Rubinstein was the main person in charge of answering the questions asked by the opposition legislators,
In this framework, he said that the 2023 Budget is “transitional” and that it aims to “achieve a more fiscally ordered situation.”
“We are on the way to fiscal balance and to think about reaching the macroeconomy that we achieved 20 years ago, when we managed to have a fiscal surplus of 3 points of GDP. Today we have 6 billion net reserves. So we had 40 billion,” said the deputy minister.
Rubinstein pointed out that “political leaders should recognize the different mistakes that led us to lose reserves, to go into debt and to have very high deficits.”
“You have to make a lot of effort to get to 60 percent inflation, which should be, in theory, easy. There are those who think that first you have to grow and then lower inflation: that is against all the theoretical and empirical evidence”, he stressed.
In his turn, the Secretary of the Treasury, Raúl Rigo, highlighted that “the Executive Power has been carrying out a tax policy that seeks to deepen the collection of those taxes or taxes of a progressive nature in order to strengthen collection, damaging as little as possible the economic activity”.
In that sense, spoke of a “consolidation preservation framework” and an “ordering of accounts”.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of Finance, Eduardo Setti, stressed that Argentina “does not have a debt problem, but a debt profile.”
“The debt is totally sustainable, but we should be lengthening the curve to have a short, medium and long term, as is the case with all ordered countries,” said the official.
Results in Deputies
The 2023 Budget project has as its central points the forecast of a global expenditure of almost $29 billion, a fiscal deficit of 1.9%, an inflationary guideline of 60% and allocates 70% of the resources to social items.
The norm, modified in its committee discussion and then in the chamber of the lower house, it obtained 180 positive votes, 22 negative and 49 abstentions.
The opposition succeeded in blocking articles that encouraged judges and court employees to pay income tax and the article that allowed the government to manage the rates of withholdings from the countryside.
In addition to the FdT legislators and their allies, the project was also supported by dissident Peronism and radicalism; while the left, the Civic Coalition and the right-wing blocs opposed it and the PRO abstained.
Opposition Stance: JxC and Radicalism
On the opposition side, the Together for Change (JxC) bloc, made up of 33 members, will resolve during the week how it will stand before the session and, later, the position it will adopt when voting on the law.
If the main opposition caucus repeats the position of his peers of Deputies, the ruling party will have the law assured when it arrives at the venue.
However, some representatives of radicalism have already let it be known that they do not want to give their approval to the Budget, so the ruling party must make sure, yes or yes, to align all its members and their allies.
Objectives of the government
The objective of the ruling party is that the project be approved as it came from Deputies, so that it becomes law and that it should not return to the lower house for a second review.
On the other hand, the ruling party also allowed to transcend the idea that, in addition to the Budget bill, the bill that extends for five years the validity of the taxes on Profits, to the Bank Debits and Credits, known as the Check Law, the Monotax, the Capital of the Cooperative and the Cigarette additional that expire at the end of 2022 and represent 32% of tax collection.
This initiative, which has already been approved in Deputies, obtained an opinion in the Budget and Treasury Committee of the Senate on September 21 last.
