Far from patronizing the current government and thinking about the prospects for 2022, it is important to analyze the 6 key measures that paved the way for SMEs this year.
1. The Fiscal Strengthening and Relief Program for Small Taxpayers
This initiative made it possible to rectify the Law of Support and Fiscal Inclusion for Small Taxpayers approved by the National Congress because it was going to generate retroactive debt to January of this year for monotax payers, given that the AFIP took several months to present the annual recategorization.
In addition, it had higher ceilings to avoid the transfer of small taxpayers to the Autonomous Regime and in line with this concept, the program proposed a progressive scheme for updating scales.
It also included a Debt Regularization Regime that made it possible to pay in up to 60 installments, with an interest rate close to 1.5% per month and discounted interest and fines.
Lastly, the measure allowed taxpayers who had voluntarily started registering for the General Regime to return to the Monotax Regime because the caps had not been updated on time. In line with this, taxpayers who chose to remain in the General Regime agreed to a reduction in the VAT technical balance for 3 years in a decreasing manner. The first year a 50% reduction, the second year a 30% reduction and the third year 10%.
2. Rethink the SME Industry
According to the latest report released by the Center for Production Studies, industrial activity grew by 8.2% compared to the same month in 2019, the year before the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition, the sector's exports grew by more than 16.3% compared to the same period in 2019.
Why do I highlight all this about industrial recovery?
Because it creates employment. Genuine and quality employment.
We cannot be naive and say that we are fine because there is still a long way to go for the development of the national industry. The world is going through the Industry 4.0 Revolution, applying Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Machine Learning, but we are still a long way from first world countries.
However, it is important to highlight the recovery of the industry. Because, in my opinion, this growth has many benefits and its impact on the value chain of SMEs is very favorable.
3. Access to Financing for SMEs
In this sense, during Fernández's administration there were great successes.
The stimulation of Electronic Credit Invoices and their recent modifications together with the development of Echeq allowed SMEs to shorten the payment chain, on the one hand, and have modern payment tools on the other.
In addition, there are Credits at Subsidized rates for companies related to the Tourism, Culture and Gastronomy industry.
To these are added the credits for the Digitization of SMEs, for Strategic Investments, for SMEs that want to make their First Export through BICE, for Cooperatives and SMEs in the industrial and agro-industrial sectors. There are also FONDEP credits.
And, finally, I would also like to highlight the relaunch of the PAC, which is a program that allows SMEs to be trained, improve their competitiveness and finance themselves through Non-Reimbursable Contributions and Tax Credit.
To graph this last item, during this year 758 Training Projects were approved for 775 companies involving 17,943 participants from all over the country. And in total, $299.7 million were allocated to finance SMEs in these projects.
4. The stimulus to the Knowledge Economy
Although the ruling party received harsh criticism for the treatment of the Knowledge Economy Law, in recent weeks they began to move forward with two measures for companies in the sector.
The first has to do with the regulation of the Regime for the Promotion of the Knowledge Economy and the elimination of withholdings for exports of companies that sell services abroad.
In addition, 15 days ago, SEPYME, led by Guillermo Merediz, announced, together with Banco Credicoop, credits at a subsidized rate of up to $25 million for knowledge economy companies.
5. Plan renewal Now 12
According to market specialists, the Government's initiative to reactivate the economy through the Now Plans allowed the internal market to be reactivated and helped businesses to sell more.
The key, moreover, was that they added the Now 24 and Now 30 plans, which allowed increasing fixed monthly installments and expanding the product offering by including financing for household appliances and furniture.
At the time, when we consulted Juan Pablo Gavuzzo, executive director of the Dellacasa Design furniture company, he assured that “since our products have high tickets, in general, the measure was productive. At first it was free of charge but a few months ago it has interests that we face as businesses”.
And he added: “many people still have in mind that it is uninteresting. Although the rate is still very convenient for the market"
6. The plan to stimulate exports of SMEs
In this regard, I would like to point out that at the beginning of last month, the Government launched the new Exporta Simple platform to facilitate the export of SMEs.
And at this point I stop to remember that this platform began during the Macri government. That's why I like it. Because it transcends the government of the day and begins to become a State Policy that overcomes the political crack that is still in force.
The last Foreign Trade Report published by the Argentine Foreign Ministry showed that Argentine sales abroad grew by 37 percent year-on-year during November, reaching its highest level since 2012, with a total of US$ 6,164 million.
In addition, 15 days ago the Government launched the initiatives called Desafío Exportar and Argentina Proyecta within the framework of the Federal Chancellery initiative. The objective of the proposals is to promote both technical and financial assistance to SMEs throughout the country so that they can consolidate as exporters of goods and services.
The Export Challenge Federal Technical Assistance Program has different technical assistance lines for the different stages of a SME and includes an international promotion technical assistance line for companies that have already defined their exportable offer.
As for the Argentina Proyecta program, designed by the Argentine Investment and International Trade Agency, it is oriented towards the formulation of private investment projects to develop the talent and creativity of the talents of our country and make their innovative ideas a reality with the best use. of resources, generating more production, employment and more exports.
The provinces provide the selection of professionals who were trained as technical advisors, and identify the companies that have the necessary conditions to implement an investment project.
The SMEs that are part of the program will be able to access activities to promote, facilitate and attract investments and financing, through the Private Investment Projects Portal of Argentina.