YPF will pay on Thurdsay and Friday the US$8 million debt claimed by Afip revenue agency, just like newspaper Ambito Financiero printed today. Due to the debt, YPF was banned from carrying out export and import duties on Wednesday.
The sanction will be published in the Official Gazette in the next few days and will also include other exporting companies that have differences with AFIP.
Once the payment is confirmed, the ban on export and importing duties will be lifted. Nevertheless YF will file a complaint before the Fiscal Court in order to solve the underlining conflict regarding the mechanism to calculate gas export rights.
The difference between AFIP and oil companies regarding gas export rights began several years ago. In YPF’s case, the sales have been sanctioned were carried out in 2005 and 2006. The company liquidates the rights according to the price it sells the product, but AFIP calculates the payment according the so called market price, which is defined monthly per the value of imported gas.
In economic terms, an US$ 8 million debt that with added interest could reach US$20 million is not significant. The measure does not have the importance that the order of selling gas oil to transport to the same price as gas stations do, and neither the impact of the elimination of Refino plus fiscal incentive programme for YPF projects in Ensenada and Luján de Cuyo.
However, as the sanction against YPF was the only one that was publically announced, AFIP’s decision takes place as the relationship between the oil company and the Government’s hit a rough patch in January.
The ongoing political onslaught against YPF is related to trouble caused by the deficit in the fuel trade balance, expected to reach 1.7 billion pesos in 2012, which is one of the Government’s main concerns. But although the problem has been detected, how the relationship between President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s administration and the oil company will continue remains unclear.
buenosairesherald.com