Through a note sent to President Alberto Fernández, Governor Juan Schiaretti yesterday ordered the national government to pay a debt of 110 billion pesos to the Córdoba Retirement Fund in five days.
In the letter sent directly to the head of State, the provincial president describes that the Nation owes to the provincial pension fund the differences of the advances sent on account, which should correspond, which was never negotiated, for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 This credit amounts to 100,335 million.
To this figure we must add the 8,562 million for the months of January and February, a commitment that the national government put in the Budget for this year.
In the three previous years, Anses made advances, but without sitting down to negotiate with the Córdoba Retirement Fund, or with other provinces, the final amount.
So far this year, the national body has not disbursed a single peso for any of the 13 provinces that must receive funds to fight part of their pension deficit.
According to this year’s Budget, the Anses must issue before the 20th of each month “one twelfth of the last total amount of the annual deficit – provisional or final – determined in accordance with Decree No. 730 (for Córdoba it is the year 2019) and its complementary and/or amending norms”, says the Budget.
According to the numbers handled in the Retirement Fund and in the Ministry of Finance of the Province, Córdoba should receive this year a little less than 4,300 million pesos per month.
The January and February installments are already due and the March installment is due in 10 days.
But, in the letter, Schiaretti claims the debt for the previous three years, which makes the figure of almost 110 billion pesos.
Deficit
According to the calculation made by the Minister of Finance, Osvaldo Giordano, the debt of the Anses with Córdoba between 2020 and 2022 is equivalent to 71% of what the provincial government collected from the Urban Real Estate Tax.
While, in the first two months of this year, due to non-compliance with the Anses, the provincial Treasury had to transfer 86% of what it collected from Urban Real Estate to the Retirement Fund.
Minister Giordano spoke of the “injustice” that means for the people of Cordoba who with their taxes must support the national and provincial pension systems.
“That the Nation does not send the resources that appear in the law does not affect the Government of Córdoba: it affects all Cordovans. It is an injustice for the people of Cordoba who, with their taxes, have to support the national pension system. The Government of Córdoba does not ask the Nation to do it a favor. That it complies with the law so that the provincial Treasury stops allocating resources from the people of Cordoba, which the Anses should send ”, he told The voice the schiarettista official.
Schiaretti intimidated the Nation, with a letter to the President himself, after the Anses did not give any response to the claim that the provinces have been making for the failure to send resources in January and February.
In addition to Córdoba, the other affected provinces are Buenos Aires, Chaco, Chubut, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Formosa, La Pampa, Misiones, Neuquén, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe and Tierra del Fuego.
Córdoba, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Corrientes are the most insistent in the claim. Schiaretti is the first governor to send the injunction, threatening to file a lawsuit against the Supreme Court.
As it is a dispute between the Province and the central power, it is the highest court of national Justice that must act in an eventual trial.
The provincial president has a good dialogue with Omar Perotti (Santa Fe), which is another of the provinces most affected by the breach of the Anses
But the Santa Fe president must face the very serious problem of insecurity and drug trafficking in Rosario, and he is not in a position to confront the Casa Rosada.
Waiting answer
In the Civic Center they believe that there will be some response from the national government to the governor’s summons.
Schiaretti is determined to start another lawsuit against Anses. What’s more, the writing of the letter that he sent yesterday to President Alberto Fernández, which was written by the State Attorney, Jorge Córdoba, also had the participation of the Buenos Aires legal firm García Lema, which carried out the defense strategy of Córdoba from the trial that, in 2012, the then governor José Manuel de la Sota started the Anses.
That trial, for an initial amount of 1,040 million pesos, had a favorable ruling for Córdoba in November 2015.
The core of that demand is that the Lasotista management asked the Nation to stop keeping the 15% co-participation to sustain the national pension system.
To comply with that ruling, which came out 15 days before Cristina Kirchner left the Casa Rosada, her successor, Mauricio Macri, was forced to promote a new fiscal pact with all the governors.
Now, Schiaretti is threatening to file a lawsuit for the last three years, with the precedent of the favorable ruling of the Supreme Court and with the support of the latest laws, which oblige Anses to transfer funds to the 13 provinces that did not transfer their funds.