Despite having an effect at the end of the month, a time when purchasing power usually falls due to high inflation, the VAT refund on debit card purchases has already changed the level of sales in different parts of the country. . As retail sources told Página I12, the phenomenon is more marked in the country: in SMEs and regional supermarkets, including large chains, payments with debit cards have doubled, the methods which allows a refund of 21 percent of VAT. .
Operations with this type of plastic range from 30 percent to 61 percent between Friday and Sunday. Many also shop early because, especially in the big hypermarkets, there are closures on Monday for Commercial Employee Day.
Although the full effect has not yet been seen in the AMBA area, which they estimate will happen in the first days of October, traders say that the needle began to move when the consumer confirmed that the VAT refund started crediting the accounts. of users. It is worth noting that this process took longer than expected due to a change in tax systems, which resulted in the amounts returned to the purchases made in the first week, only credited last Friday.
Those who know the sector assure that this is the key, “because people will return to spend what they received from VAT.” The 21 percent refund for purchases with debit or virtual wallets associated with a card has a maximum limit of 18,800 pesos per month.
In the lines of major supermarkets, in the AMBA area, there was “more movement” at the weekend, but they stressed that next week it will be stronger. They made it clear that the discount system already in hypermarkets is the key, plus the Fair Prices plan: any consumer who takes advantage of the 21 percent VAT refund can do so with promotions already available in supermarkets, discounts either with debit or a second unit at half price. That will make sales more dynamic, the Government understands. Another piece of information provided by the Government is that Chinese businesses, which have already experienced a decrease in sales due to the difference in prices in hypermarkets, have begun a process of formalizing commerce to capture demand, such as many greengrocers, who used to work only for money.
Recording of withdrawals
The head of the General Directorate of Customs (DGA), Guillermo Michel, promoted in recent hours the measures aimed at “putting more money in people’s pockets”, and announced that at the end of the week a A record was achieved in VAT refunds. “Last Friday, about $7.7 billion was returned to 3.3 million people. When we finish processing what happened over the weekend, we will see that it is a record,” said Michel, one of the ideologues of the plan that asked the minister Sergio Massa.
Regarding the Buy without VAT measure, he said that the removal of the tax “is not efficient from the technical point of the tax because the supply is attacked there,” but he stressed that the measure is “direct to the demand.” “Give the VAT back to the people to create a less regressive system and so they have more purchasing power available,” said Michel, who said: “We want to make this law because it is a positive , virtuous public policy that serves. the people.”
Likewise, he compared that “other candidates suggest that taxes should be lowered for people with high purchasing power who have accounts abroad or that export duties should be lowered for of cereal companies.”
