After tough negotiations, the Senate ruling party will form a consensus for both projects

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After a tense day and last-minute negotiations, the government achieved a milestone Agreement to unblock resistance from several senators of opposition and The commission will have opinions that will enable Aadhaar law and tax reform projects.Once this stage is completed, which will happen this Thursday, the ruling party will be able to call a session next week to discuss both initiatives.

The situation was finally resolved after the Chief of Staff, Guillermo Francosand Vice President Victoria Villarruel Upper House speaker to hold meeting with senators tonight Jose Maria Carambia (for Santa Cruz), Guadalupe Tagliaferri (pro-capital) and dissident Peronists Edgardo Cuider (Federal Unit-Entre Ríos). All three signed their signatures in partial dissent, and thus the Base Law project reached the majority needed to obtain a consensus.

The tax reform project lacked signatures, which official spokesmen assured would be finalized in the next few hours. The decision to put the two opinions together was the reason their official presentation had to be postponed.

The crucial step in ending the last resistance was the government’s decision to grant the Santa Cruz natives the amendment they were demanding in the mining law. Carambia requested the inclusion A clause in the so-called Base Law that would increase the royalties at the mouth of the mine that the provinces could receive. In an attempt to unblock the negotiations, the government agreed to increase these contributions from the current 3% to 5%. In the end, the change was introduced as an amendment to the tax reform project.

In the case of Tagliaferri, the pro senator had demanded changes to money laundering, such as the elimination of front men, which were half completed, so he signed in partial dissent. In his decision, he prioritized the fact that he had achieved his objective of reforming the law, especially with regard to the Large Investment Incentive Regime (RIGI), where he managed to get the government to admit that the productive value chain must be addressed in the projects that benefit from the profits and the elimination of the clause that considered provincial legislation that contradicts a program promoted by the executive branch absolutely null and void.

In favor of calming the rebellion of the Carambia was also the fact that, in the morning, the ruling party agreed to include an increase in the non-taxable minimum of 22% per adverse region for Patagonia in the payment of the fourth category of tax on earnings. When the project, which restores the payment of taxes for employees, was discussed in the Chamber of Deputies, the benefit of the region was not considered.

The intervention of Francos and Villarruel made a 180-degree turn in the situation, which had become complicated in the middle of the afternoon, when the ruling party He attempted to force the signing of opinions without obtaining the necessary support and was eventually forced to move the plenary session of the commissions to an interim period.

The thing is that at that time, Carambia had announced and noted shortly before the meeting began that, dissatisfied with the absence of any amendments he had demanded, he would “take the opportunity” to present a minority opinion.

A few minutes later, already during the plenary session of the commissions, the radical Martin Loustau (Capital) ended up giving the final blow to what was emerging as a new failure of the government. Reiterating his criticism of the initiative, he said that the changes accepted by the executive were “merely cosmetic” and affirmed that he would follow the same path as the Patagonian legislator.

The position of Carambia and Loustau closed the door to the possibility that there could be a consensus on the Base Law project, because it was This ran into difficulties because it was not possible for more than half of the 17 members of the General Legislative Commission to speak through one or more offices. The Constitutional Affairs and Budget and Finance committees also participate in the debate.

Knowing that the project would not get the green light, other senators decided to hold back their signatures waiting for the situation to become clearer. Thus they did not add their support even during the plenary session. Guadalupe Tagliaferri (pro-capital), radical Maximiliano Abad (Buenos Aires), dissident Peronist Edgardo Cuider (Federal Unit-Entre Rios).

Frustrated in its attempt to push the base law through, the ruling party moved the plenary session into recess. The Budget and Finance Commission met shortly after to discuss the tax reform project.

In that meeting, which lasted more than half an hour, the ruling party announced the changes to the mining law that Carambia had been demanding, after which the chairman of the commission, the ruling party Ezequiel Attauche (Jujuy), the meeting also had to be postponed due to uncertainty about whether there would be signatures to give opinion on the tax reform.

Everything changed just an hour after what seemed like a new failure. Thus, the ruling party attaché managed to get the ruling party to sign the Base Law opinion, Bartolome Abdalla and Juan Carlos Pagoto and the radicals Rodolfo Suárez, Mariana Jury, Pablo Blanco, Victor Zimmerman, Flavio Fama, and Eduardo Visci. Luis Juez, Tagliaferri and Beatriz Avila signed for Pro, joining dissident Peronists from Unidad Federal Cuidar and Alejandra Vigo and Juan Carlos Romero (Cambio Federal-Salta) and the Provincial Carambia, Sonia Rojas Debus (Frente Renovator of Missions) and Monica Silva (Together We Are Río Negro).

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