Argentine novellas: Milei’s government announces ‘dissolution’ of Tax Bureau

President Javier Milei.
Photo: AP

Argentina’s government says it will shutter AFIP tax collection agency and replace it with ‘Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero (ARCA); Move will see 34% reduction in staffing levels, ‘Buenos Aires Times’ informs.

In a statement, President Javier Milei’s government confirmed the closure of the Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos (AFIP) and the creation of the Agencia de Recaudación y Control Aduanero (ARCA).

The new entity will maintain AFIP's current dual role of overseeing tax collection and customs monitoring.

More than 3,000 AFIP agents who joined during former president Alberto Fernández’s 2019-2023 government will be laid off as part of a 34 percent reduction of current staffing levels, said the statement.

It accused those workers of being “irregularly hired” by the previous government.

The Office of the President said that the closure of AFIP "is essential to dismantle the unnecessary bureaucracy that has hindered the economic and commercial freedom of Argentines.”

The statement also said it would eliminate rules ensuring large salaries for senior officials, lowering their pay to similar to that of a Cabinet minister.

"The government very happily announces that as of today the AFIP will cease to exist," said Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni at a press conference.

"What belongs to each Argentine is theirs and no-one else's, no state bureaucrat should be delegated the power to tell an Argentine what to do with his or her property," he argued.

President Milei has implemented a series of budget-slashing measures since taking office last December, including the elimination or downgrading of a number of government ministries and state agencies.

The AEFIP union, which represents AFIP employees, said Monday it would consider strike action in response to the announcement.

"We are going to mobilise and we will take more measures as soon as we know the details. The most worrying thing is the 3,100 jobs of our colleagues," said AEFIP chief Pablo Flores.

…In Argentina, President Milei is conducting a massive experiment in creating a ‘new economy’. He has two options – either he will set an example for the world by drastically reducing bureaucracy, or he will fail spectacularly because his libertarian economic policy is too adventurous.

read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs