Farming sector leaders complain over government measures

AFIP is putting pressure on grain producers

Several agricultural leaders yesterday accused the national government of putting pressure on their sector via the AFIP tax agency in order to force them to sell grain quicker, thus providing the dollars the government requires to alleviate its growing fiscal deficit.

Among those critical were Argentine Rural Society (SRA) President Luis Miguel Etchevehere, Agrarian Federation (FAA) director Eduardo Buzzi and Rural Confederation (CRA) leader Rubén Ferrero.

Buzzi stated that many producers had informed them of the AFIP’s increasing pressure on farmers, which the FAA leader described as “persecution” in order to force soy producers to sell off their stored stocks.

The FAA leader said through social network communications that “every producer can and has the right to sell the fruit of his labour when and how he wants to without having to deal with government pressure just because they need dollars.”

Etchevehere described the policies being applied by the government’s administration to the farming sector as “dire.” After participating last weekend in the Lion Corn festival, the SRA president said that these issues would be discussed in the next farm meeting to be held on February 15 in the Buenos Aires district of Pehuajó.

Following the same line, Ferrero objected to audit controls conducted by AFIP officials where they inspected existing granaries in rural areas last week. The CRA leader said that “this was nothing but a discriminatory attack” on the agricultural sector and considered also that the “fiscal controls and inspections are a new way of leaning on producers.”

Ferrero furthermore remarked through his organization’s webpage that the AFIP’s new order demanding that data concerning each producer’s granaries be handed over in 48 hours, were “groundless as the legal statutes indicate that they must be given 10 days to complete the order.”

The CRA head also argued: “One cannot change the laws just because of the government’s desperation,” for cash that will take them out of the red and he alerted that soy would begin to be sold by mid-April.

Herald with DyN