After last Friday’s controversy, President Alberto Fernández once more ensured that withholdings are the “ideal” mechanism to decouple prices and stop the rise in food.
“I believe that we have to decouple internal prices from external ones and for that, withholdings are an ideal instrument. And for that I need a law, but I have an opposition that says they don’t want that topic to be touched”, assured the President in a report granted to the 990.
Last week, his Ministers of Economy, Martín Guzmán, and Agriculture, Julián Domínguez, assured that the government does not have among its projects an increase in the rates of export duties, which would seem to contradict the president’s speech.
Fernández denied this Monday that there are differences of opinion in his government. From his point of view, all officials agree not to send a bill to Congress because the ruling party does not have the necessary votes to sanction an increase in withholdings. “Julián Domínguez says that we are not going to send any law and of course; Why am I going to send it if it’s not going to come out?“, he asked himself.
And I add: “I don’t believe in epic defeats; epic defeats are defeats”.
Although he said that he is working to reduce inflation and, mainly, to increase the purchasing power of wages, the President took a negative view of food prices: “It is very possible that they will continue to grow”. Faced with this panorama, he proposed a public question to the opposition: “If they don’t want retentions, where do they want to stop? What do they propose?
In another section of the report he was even willing to promote a public debate on the issue. “I propose to give the debate on withholdings, but let’s make it public. They already said they will not accept it. You have to give the debates in front of the people. I am giving it. I explain to people what happens with inflation. Since 2008, withholdings are a taboo subject that nobody wants to talk regarding”, he developed.
