President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has announced the creation of a new fund which will will compensate by up to 50 percent the ‘retention’ taxes on exportation rights paid by small and medium agricultural producers.
The fund, which will contain 2.5 billion pesos, is earmarked for farmers with production capacities of less than 700 tonnes, a group composed of some 46,000 nationwide. The announcement was made today via public broadcast, after a meeting with the Argentine Agrarian Federation (FAA).
«This is a program that is the government’s decision, but it is also a policy agreed upon point by point with the other side, which is the FAA,» the head of state emphasised during the live transmission.
The president also praised Omar Príncipe, the new head of the Federation.
«It was a clear, open and honest conversation, overcoming all the preconceptions they had and that I also had, I was told that they are small producers that have nothing to do with the seed magnates, or the massive landowners,» CFK pointed out.
Economy minister Axel Kicillof, who joined Cristina in launching the new fund, explained that the smallest producers would enjoy the most benefit from the scheme, and that refunds on export rights would be made directly in farmers’ bank account on the 15th of every month.
«Resources will be distributed between producers of up to 700 tonnes, who will receive a percentage of each ton produced,» he underlined.
Kicillof added that the 2.5 billion pesos reserved for small farmers represents «half of the retentions they will have to pay this year.»
The minister also explained that the agreement with the FAA was partly provoked by the strengthening US dollar, as well as a downward trend in the price of commodities exported by Argentina, such as soya.
«The products that Argentina exports, corn, wheat, soya, have seen falls of around 30 percent and this means a troubled situation for the sector,» he indicated.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald