A hoarse Sergio Massa tried this Monday to put some epic into the announced modification in the Income Tax. He was far from achieving it. It is not for less. The measure, which benefits a smaller sector of the working class, comes within the framework of an inflationary process that harshly hits the living conditions of the great majority of the people.
At the same time, it reaches a small sector of the working class: most of the white workers did not arrive to the amounts necessary to receive the discount. Logically, neither millions of informal workers and unregistered, which are the sector hardest hit by the current crisis.
A starting October 1stthose who are in the fourth category of the tax will begin to pay taxes from the figure of $1,770,000 gross. The change implies that a very important portion of the workers who have been suffering from this tax will stop paying it.
According to the Government’s own estimates, they would be exempt to pay earnings to approximately 610,000 workers in a dependency relationship. Those who would continue paying would be around 90,000. They are the sector that exceeds the new floor.
Eliminating the collection of salary tax for workers in the fourth category became a very important demand years ago. For many years, this demand was not met by the various governments. In the years of Cristina Kirchner The tax was maintained and the president herself defended it publicly as a sign of “solidarity” from the highest sectors of the working class to the lowest. Later, during Macri’s time, the tax continued to expand its scope. Despite Let’s change had campaigned announcing its elimination, under his management the problem deepened and Almost 2.5 million people were affected.
Contrary to that, The Left Front maintained the permanent complaint that salary is not profit and always demanded the abolition of the tax in its fourth category. However, the majority political forces refused to move forward with its elimination.
Massa’s announcement comes two months before the elections and after 6 consecutive years of falling income. It is a clearly electoral measureaimed at recovering votes for a weakened ruling party, which was beaten in the elections on August 13.
In it event held this Monday in front of Plaza de Mayo, Massa slipped the comparison with the Macrista government. In this framework, he stated “in 2019 we began to follow a path of decline and we reached this moment, in which less than 800,000 workers are paying Profits.” At the same time, in what was almost a call for a vote on October 22, maintained that his eventual presidency “will be marked by recovery of wages and work.” In this framework, he announced the sending of a bill to Congress aimed at institutionalizing the new modifications.
The minister-candidate stated: “For me, salary is not profit. It is remuneration, payment for the work and effort that each worker makes. We have to end this madness of a worker not wanting to do overtime so as not to lose it in The tax”. The decision involves pass the buck to the bosses’ opposition, trying to discredit her if she refuses to sit down to discuss this measure. This is an attempt to make him pay the political cost, in the midst of an electoral campaign and at a time when Congress is virtually paralyzed.
This Monday, the union bureaucracy -who had been avoiding appearing to try not to reveal his complicity with the adjustment in progress- It was part of the announcement of the measure. At the meeting with Massa were the general secretaries of the CGT, Héctor Daer, Pablo Moyano and Carlos Acuña. Present with them were the leaders Sergio Palazzo (La Bancaria), Hugo Yasky (CTA), Guillermo Moser (Luz y Fuerza), and other leaders of the senior staff of the different labor confederations, including representatives of the oil unions, of Food and Aircraft.
The demagogic measure of the Unión por la Patria candidate implies relief for only 6% of registered workers in a dependency relationship. The union leaders, instead of getting on stage to show support for the Government, should be calling for a plan of struggle in the face of the critical social situation that worsens day by day due to inflation. This fight must be imposed on them, forcing them to break the truce they have with the government and employers.
To confront the right and the adjustment, you have to be in the streets. From the Left Front and hundreds of workers and human rights organizations, they call this Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in Plaza de Mayo to mark that the way out of the crisis is through mobilization, demanding an emergency increase in the income of all workers and their families.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
