The Argentine Chamber of Commerce and Services (CAC) expresses its satisfaction with the reduction of the PAIS tax for imports of goods and freight ordered by the National Government, and believes that it will be beneficial for the companies directly affected, consumers and the national economy as a whole.
The reduction of the tax rate, which as of this week goes from 17.5% to 7.5% for the aforementioned operations, implies a reduction in the tax pressure borne by the companies that carry them out, which will allow them to sell at more competitive prices, thus alleviating the productive chain they form part of, collaborating with the sustained process of disinflation underway and favouring the competitiveness of the national economy as a whole.
The CAC has repeatedly denounced the excessive tax burden in Argentina and has advocated for its reduction. Consequently, it shares and welcomes the determination of the National Executive Branch to gradually reduce current taxes, along with a progressive reduction in spending, in order to preserve fiscal balance, an irreplaceable pillar of the macroeconomic order.
Paradoxically, and in a contrary vein, excessive tax increases are observed in various jurisdictions at the subnational level, which severely affect retail and wholesale trade. A recent flagrant example is the increase in the Safety and Hygiene Tax –which is for all purposes a hidden tax– applied to large supermarkets in the Buenos Aires district of Lanús, which unjustifiably rose from 2.76% to 6% of turnover.
In view of the above, the CAC urges these leaders to be extremely efficient in managing resources and not to undermine the fiscal efforts of the National Government, always bearing in mind that the private sector is the true engine of growth and that suffocating it with abusive taxes will only cause backwardness, poverty and economic and social decline, even harming the very public coffers that it is intended to benefit.
