June 02
08:46
2024
Print news
The successful circulation of the “Chacho” as a provincial currency depends on the trust of the population. The doubts of merchants, when it will begin to be implemented and the keys for the coming months. Does the issue of public works have any influence? The numbers, that issue is never clear.
When you Google the word money, one of the first phrases that appears is the following: “Money is the most coveted material good within any capitalist economy.” In a couple of weeks, the economic life of Riojans will have a fundamental change because a new provincial currency will begin to circulate: “El Chacho”.
The administration headed by Ricardo Quintela had already announced that this bonus would be implemented in the first days of the year. This happened when it became clear that the national budget would be redirected and therefore would be outdated due to inflation, that the extra funds would not arrive (the Nation owes eight months) and that 2024 would come in which the resources sent by the “Casa Rosada” ” would have a sharp fall as a result of the adjustment and the economic recession. That is, the provincial State would have less money available.
For now, at the highest levels of the provincial government there is no official launch date for the Riojan currency.
“It is not defined, we are evaluating it taking into account the evolution of the co-participation,” they said in the “Casa de las Tejas.” In that sense, it works in favor of the Government that May 2024 was, as always, the best month of collection in the year and could have broken the negative sequence of several periods in the comparison with the inflationary process.
For its part, the Shopping Center expressed several doubts in the last few hours. Eugenio Covián -the legal representative of the entity that brings together the merchants- spoke with “Riojavirtual Radio” and raised questions about the implementation and operation.
“There is a problem here that has to do with segmentation. The small merchant will be the one who has the first contact with the Chachos because whoever collected them as part of his salary will want to use it to make a purchase. But the wholesaler or distributor is going to have the problem because he will not be able to pay his suppliers in Buenos Aires with Chachos,” he warned.
Given this, the Government maintains that businesses will be able to change the currency at the “Banco Rioja” within a period that would not exceed 48 hours, but the issue continues to generate some information gaps.
The first question is how those who receive it as salary will be paid in that Rioja currency, because the paper cannot pass through Banco Rioja as a financial institution or through ATMs due to the questions and warnings that the Central Bank has already made as a controlling body. Where will the physical payment be made? What will happen in the provincial interior? How will that money be transferred? How much money was printed?
On the other hand, the next question is whether only merchants or ordinary citizens will be able to exchange it for pesos, because those people who want to travel to another province for tourism or for paperwork, the first thing they will try to do is get rid of the provincial currency.
And here another element arises: At what value will businesses value Chacho in relation to the peso?
The Government reported in the last few hours that there will be strict controls on the issue and that those merchants who do not receive a Chacho for one peso will be sanctioned. But what legal framework will they use to sanction them and with what State agencies will they advance this control?
And in that same sense, in the previous issuance of provincial currency the exchange houses were a constant and the devaluation of the “Bono Evita” was a problem. Now there will not only be physical exchange houses, but 20 years later we are in a digital era where WhatsApp statuses or Facebook pages will be another area against which official organizations will have to fight to avoid the devaluation of the currency. .
In this context, this week the provincial government had the first good news sent from the “Casa Rosada” since last December 10: the reactivation of road works financed by the national State in La Rioja was announced.
The data brought relief to the UOCRA, where they estimate that nearly three thousand workers could join in these state interventions. However, the Rioja construction companies are not so happy, because the works they are in charge of are housing and those would only be resumed very slowly and with provincial resources.
The large road works are in the hands of important national holding companies and that was a key element in Balcarce 50’s decision to reactivate them. The lobby of these economic groups is not minor.
However, the issue of public works requires the signing of an agreement between the national government and the Province in order to provide the legal framework for everything that was pending execution. This agreement – which is already being drafted and will be advanced especially next Tuesday – would have to be signed in the coming weeks, temporarily coinciding with the launch of the “Chacho” on the streets of Rioja.
With a national government that has the monetary issue as its worst enemy, you do not have to be a fortune teller to presuppose how it will fall in the “Casa Rosada” when the national media makes it visible that a provincial currency is issued in La Rioja.
“The political issue has nothing to do with the issue of the works,” Infrastructure Minister Marcelo Del Moral said this week on “Riojavirtual Radio.” But no one escapes that in Argentina the institutional and the political always go hand in hand and condition each other all the time.
Will the need to sign that agreement to reactivate public works influence the moment of the public launch of Chacho?
On the other hand, this week the video of national deputy Martín Menem questioning the administration of the resources that enter the Province went notably viral. Beyond some elements about the economic crisis that are missing from the presentation and that are not specified by the national legislator, it is clear that he “puts his finger on the sore spot” when he points out that he calls into question the management of the funds.
The provincial government needs to be clear on this issue.
The great crisis of representation and trust that Rioja society is experiencing in relation to its ruling class is fertile ground for questions such as the one made by the president of the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation. There is a lack of clarity in the management of provincial numbers and the solution is to go out and show the resources that La Rioja has and state whether Menem is right or not.
Since the return of democracy, we Riojans have had many experiences in the creation of provincial coins. We saw them of all types, names, colors and in various governments. That is an element that works in favor of the provincial administration, because the average Riojan does not seem to fear the experience of a provincial currency.
Every time he is asked about the issue of Chacho, Governor Ricardo Quintela maintains that the key is the trust of the population and on that point he is right. The key to this entire process is for Riojans to trust Chacho as a form of payment (clearly not as a form of savings), but for this to happen, information and clarity are essential.
And it is in that item where the Government is lacking greater urgency and precision. When is it released? What percentage of the salary will each employee receive? Can it be applied to the payment of public services and provincial taxes? Every answer they provide would bring peace of mind and confidence, every doubt that is generated pierces trust.
As the poetry of “La Cantata” says about Ángel Vicente Peñaloza: “That leader does not walk or turn back, he is everywhere and is nowhere, he plays at being and not being.” If the provincial government wants the “Chacho” to function as currency, the key will be for it to be everywhere and for there to be no doubt or hide anything.
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