In the midst of the cuts in national funds to the provinces that were made in the first months of the year, there was an improvement in the collection of the Salta Revenue Directorate, which was like water in the desert. The provincial body increased its income by 297% in March, compared to the same month last year.
The rise has two explanations: inflation and greater participants in the mining business. On the one hand, it increased due to the escalation of prices that were applied to the products or services of the different activities that pay taxes to the Salta treasury through the gross income tax. It is the main income collection item that is applied, as its name suggests, to the total profits of companies and taxpayers.
The contribution of mining
Likewise, mining activity had strong growth in terms of its contributions. This item, which appears as exploitation of mines and quarries in the Income nomenclature, had an increase of 335% year-on-year in March taxation. That month, mining disbursed $2,326 million to Revenue. While wholesale and retail trade, which is usually the main taxpayer in the province, had an increase of 226% year-on-year, with payments that amounted to $3,551 million in the third month of the year.
There are two other items that had strong increases in terms of their contributions. One of them was financial intermediation (mainly banks), which grew 657% year-on-year in March in gross income payments. The other one that increased in taxation was the manufacturing industry, with a year-on-year increase of 336% in the same month. The performance of this last activity can also be associated with the mining boom in the province.
Local collection has not only been growing in interannual comparisons but also from month to month. In January, Revenue received a total of $33,079 million; in February, $35,344 million and in March it reached $39,993 million.
From Nation
On the other hand, Salta had real improvements last month in terms of the co-participation that comes from the Nation. It was the first time, after nine months, that an increase in these transfers was recorded. The same thing happened in the rest of the country.
According to a recent report from the Argentine Institute of Fiscal Analysis (Iaraf), the Province obtained $186,562 million in May from the Nation for co-participation, complementary laws and compensation. This was 22.3% real growth (discounting inflation) compared to the same month in 2023.
“One of the main reasons is due to the fact that, with such a significant devaluation of the peso in December 2023, companies with dollarized assets recorded significant capital gains, which implied that they paid much more income tax,” they explained in the Iaraf. .
“In addition, in May the companies that closed their balance sheet in December 2023 paid the balances of the sworn statements,” they clarified.
