The Senate approved this Tuesday a bill to exonerate of the Value Added Tax (VAT)for a period of 30 days, for the sale of fresh, frozen or chilled beef from the roast cut from 10 to 13 ribs.
The government ensures that the “medium quality” roast, the emblem cut and most consumed by Uruguayans, have a maximum price of $230 per kg to the public.
11:47 Olesker said that the initiative is “marginal” and “late”, despite supporting it
The Frente Amplio senator Daniel Olesker supported the project, although he called it “late and marginal” and warned that “it could have been thought of earlier.”
“It could have been done for more products, for longer and especially before, when pockets began to empty,” he said.
Olesker, who questioned the duration of the measure, also criticized that the price agreements were not discussed between October and November 2021. “This is a marginal measure, after a price spike, (…) that will not have almost effect on the standard of living of households.(…) We believe that there was a high level of improvisation on this issue,” he continued.
11:55 Domenech can extend the exemption to other basic products
The debate continued with the words of Senator Guillermo Domenech, who alluded to the importance of the State’s role in combating price increases: “We understand that the State must be present in circumstances that can be dramatic for society. Today we are experiencing an alternation of prices, which, it is true, has worsened due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but it is also true that Uruguay is a price taker of the products it imports and exports”.
“Perhaps not (it should be) only the roast, but also the shoulder, the needle, the minced meat, the noodles, the rice should reach the table of our compatriots at adequate prices,” he added.
12:08 FA questions the “tiny” scope of the measure
Enrique Rubio, from the Broad Front (FA), assessed, on the one hand, the initiative as “positive” and, on the other, questioned that it is “extraordinarily limited in the scope of products and in time.” The senator relied on the growth of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to affirm that the increase occurred “pre-war”, for which he asked to compensate this increase with an increase in income so that the middle and popular sectors do not “suffer”
Legislator Mario Bergara expressed himself along these lines when pointing out, in reference to the project, that “any little coin will do.” However, he also specified: “It gives us the impression that this does not even reach a coin, because it is of a tiny dimension.”
And he insisted: “When one hears an argument that starts with world instability, the war between Russia and Ukraine, global inflation, famines, agricultural production technology, the hunger that people are going through -even with the remnants of the pandemic- and culminates with the fact that we are going to address the issue by lowering VAT on strip roast for a month, it seems to us that there is an unevenness, imbalance and difference of worlds (…) The people who need the most, the most vulnerable, do they think that they are people who eat strip roast? Are we going to incorporate strip roast in popular pots? This is going to have a negligible impact,” he commented.
Bergara remarked that the project promoted by the Executive “is not even a coin of aid”, although, in any case, he clarified, it will be supported by the opposition caucus. He also insisted on developing “much deeper policies” and on attending to “concrete projects and not in a hurry two days before an election” (referring to the referendum on March 27).
12:24 Da Silva questions the FA for “trying to relativize” the project and assures that the answer will be given by the gondolas
Senator Sebastián Da Silva, from the National Party, came out at the crossroads of his statements, asking for a clarification, although he was later silenced for not addressing the issue in question. Da Silva affirmed that the measure “has been tried to relativize” by the Broad Front when, in his opinion, “the only thing it does is generate benefits for the population.”
“I have heard a lot of stuttering in the month of January and February from the priests of the economy of the FA when Minister Arbeleche announced growth of 4.5%. A lot of stuttering. Look, those who left melted this country!”, he sentenced.
“The clarification will be given by reality when a real barbecue appears on the shelves of this country at $230 pesos per kg,” he added.
12:45 Bianchi rejects that it is an “isolated measure” and responds to Bergara in defense of Lacalle
“Nobody says that this bill is going to solve the problem of the vulnerable. (…) If someone thinks that a president (by Luis Lacalle Pou), who has 55% approval in his administration, needs a bill of these two days before the referendum is that they are not reading what people are thinking,” said Graciela Bianchi.
The legislator of the National Party said she did not know how the reduction of $230 per kilogram will be reached, but, as she maintained, she trusts those who promote it. “It seems to me that there is a lack of humility in recognizing some things. In the first place, (…) it never happened through the head of the president that this could solve the problem we have and that we have been dragging since before the pandemic. We have a president who does not it takes its toll, but we all know the situation the country is in. (…) Secondly, there is an adjustment variable which is the referendum, which I deeply regret. But for Tyrians and Trojans. They all have an influence”, continuous.
Bianchi insisted that he will not allow the project to be treated as an “isolated measure” when in reality he sees it as an opportunity to access barbecue.
13:45 Senate unanimously approves the bill
The president of the Senate, Beatriz Argimón, asked the legislators to vote on the project, which obtained 29 affirmative votes out of 29 present.
