The National Government launched this Tuesday a set of measures to help rural producers affected by droughtamong which are included the suspension of some tax advances, financial facilities and a rapid approval of the declaration of agricultural emergency.
The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massamet with the representatives of the Agricultural Liaison Table and announced the creation of a “revolving fund” for 5,000 million pesos to reach small producers that will be channeled through agreements with provinces, municipalities and/or agricultural cooperatives, a system that aims to assist 18,000 small producers.
“We are going to suspend payment of advance income tax for all those producers with difficulties or covered by the emergency,” Minister Massa said in a statement.
The official stressed that “the procedure” will be carried out by the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP), an organization that “will keep an eye on producers with more than $50 million declared profit in 2022.”
“This is for the purposes of that the small producer is not afraid to raise the emergency request with the idea that the AFIP will come later and review the numbers“, explained the minister.
Massa announced that they agreed with the AFIP to suspend the tax execution trials and the seizures of the current accounts of all the producers affected by the emergency.
In addition, it was noted that in the last quarter of the year “there was a process of forced sale of farms” as a result of the lack of food in the fields “and the need in some cases for producers to make money.”
“This caused producers to sell off their farms,” said Massa, who added that “in view of this, we are going to do, in the case of the forced sale of farms, the non-incorporation for the calculation of the Income Tax; there are 4,200 producers of Argentina who are going to benefit from this measure”.
The AFIP will carry out a process of training and rapprochement with producers in order to facilitate all these procedures.
In addition, “we are going to proceed to finance the liabilities under the same conditions in which the credits were granted,” Massa said.
“This is a very good measure, among other things, because 47% of the credits in the sector, from producers who are affected by the emergency, are credits that are even the product of a Banco Nación policy of rapprochement and promotion from the agricultural sector, they already came with a promoted rate, and somehow the 360-day deferral will maintain the same conditions”, assured
The main beneficiaries of this Banco Nación decision are small producers with less than 500 hectaresor with less than 150 heads, so “it really is a measure that has a very important impact in terms of capillarity throughout the country.”
The Minister of Economy maintained that “they are going to put 15 more points of rate subsidy to accompany the producer who has to go to take credit with a reduction in the interest rate.”
The Banco Nación will have 50,000 million pesos, in line of credit for producers who are covered by the emergency.
RELIEF MEASURES FOR THE FIELD DUE TO THE DROUGHT
The announcement will be made by the Minister of Economy, @SergioMassatogether with the Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries @JuanjoBahillo.
Live stream ?https://t.co/tJO7Ullt8y
– Ministry of Economy of the Nation (@Economia_Ar) January 31, 2023
“For us, this is very important, first because of the rate subsidy effort made by the National Government, but on the other hand because of the capillarity achieved by Banco Nación, which we all know is the bank that is in each of the towns in Argentina. “, he assured.
The minister announced that “we are approving the emergency requests of the provinces. Today we signed some of the province of Buenos Aires, we are about to start the approval of Entre Ríos. You know that it is important because it is the trigger that allows the producer to access all the benefits.
Massa announced that on Thursday, at the Board meeting, the Central Bank “is going to repeal the resolution that increased the rate for those producers who could somehow access credit and had been limited by the issue of the liquidation of the soybean dollar, in order to once again give him the opportunity to access credit without penalty of surcharge”.
“All these measures represent an enormous effort by the National Government, but it is the result of the work of different areas of the Government at the dialogue and work table with the four entities of the Liaison Table plus two entities that also represent the producers. That from the dialogue and work table we can get results in the emergency is very important,” said the minister.
“Maybe it’s not all they asked for, I know, but it’s what we can at the moment,” Massa said before the representatives of the field.
The head of AFIP, Carlos Castagnetto, and Banco Nación, Silvina Batakis, also participated in the meeting.
The Liaison Table was satisfied with the aid measures announced by the Government
The Agricultural Liaison Table agreed with the announcements of the national government to help the pagricultural producers affected by the drought, and their representatives assured that within the measures most of the claims are covered they had done last week.
“A high percentage of the points that we have requested are included”, secured the President of the Argentine Rural Confederations (CRA), Jorge Chemesafter the meeting they held with the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, in which he announced a battery of assistance and credit measures for the sector.
In this sense, Chemes maintained that “see these measures in action and how they work inside, so that there are no bureaucratic measures that stop them”.
in tune with the head of the CRA, his counterpart from the Argentine Agrarian Federation (FAA), Carlos Achetoni, He assured that the Government fulfilled “a large percentage of what had been requested, but we have to wait to see the scope they have.”
“Hopefully everyone can develop and producers in emergency can benefit”added Acetoni.
For that the president of Coninagro, Elbio Lauciricaasked the producers to “expedite the presentation of the affidavits” to be able to access the benefits.
Lastly, the President of the Argentine Rural Society (SRA), Nicolás Pino, reported that the next meetings they will hold with the Government will have the purpose of working on measures for livestock and regional economies.
“We met at a work table where the situation was raised due to the particular situation. The ugly moment that the country is experiencing calls for immediate measures,” concluded Pino.
Today Massa, together with the head of the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP), Carlos Castagneto, the president of Banco Nación, Silvina Batakis and the secretaries of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Juan José Bahillo and of Industry and Productive Development, José de Mendiguren, announced a battery of measures, including the suspension of some tax advances, financial facilities and a rapid approval of the declaration of agricultural emergency.
