Upper House approves 2012 Budget Law, economic bills

The Upper House of Congress approved the 2012 Budget with 44 votes in favour and 26 against, and a package of economic bills sponsored by the government. Earlier, the controversial Farm Worker Statute that sparked Union protests was approved at the Senate with 68 votes in favor and one against from senator and former president Carlos Menem.

The Budget bill foresees a capital expenditures total of 505.130 billion pesos for 2012, a 5.1 percent increase and a variation of 9.2 percent of the Consumer Prices Index. The session will now continue with the debate of each article of the bill.

Meanwhile, the Senate also approved the economic package sponsored by the government which included the extension of the Economic Emergency Bill and the duty, cigarette and hydrocarbon exports taxes.

Earlier, the controversial Farm Worker Statute that sparked Union protests was approved at the Senate with 68 votes in favour and one against from senator and former president Carlos Menem.

The bill is aimed to reduce the retirement age from 67 to 57 and to incorporate a paternity leave of 15 days. The government argues it will expand rural worker’s labor rights.

The Senate is summoned now in a 48-hour marathon to clear a set of government-essential bills.

Senators were also scheduled to debate a Penal Tributary Code modification, the Newsprint Law – that declares newspaper production and distribution of national interest – among other proposals.

In addition, the polemic Land Ownership bill, curbing land sales to foreigners, is to be debated at some moment of the 48-hour marathon. According to the new law foreigners will only be allowed to buy up to 1,000 hectares of land in the country’s most lucrative farming areas, or the equivalent elsewhere.

The bill would also set a fifteen percent limit on the total amount of land that can be owned by foreigners in the country as a whole and in each of its municipalities.

Other proposals include new financial rules to prevent fraud such as money laundering. The new bills are a governmental effort to fulfill the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) demands to fight financial crime and other market schemes in Argentina.