BUENOS AIRES. The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, confirmed the creation of the “Kicillof rate” to begin paying the debt of 16 billion dollars that the State has with the Burford Capital fund for the trial that it lost last September in a court of New York, for the nationalization of the oil company YPF in 2012.
The new Argentine president has recognized that there is no money in the country to cover the payment of the debt, however he will create a tax so that Argentines can pay it through a perpetual bond with annual payments in dollars.
For Milei, this is the only way to confront the “monstrous mistake” of Axel Kicillof, at the time when he was Minister of Economy and Public Finance of Argentina under the orders of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, for this reason he baptized the tax as the “Kicillof rate”.
The government has managed to postpone the payment for several weeks following the ruling of US federal judge Loretta Preska, but the US court denied the Argentine authorities the granting of the extension to deposit a guarantee for the 16 billion dollars, as well as to submit appeal documents.
The New York federal court also established that Argentina must comply with the scheduled dates of January 10 to present the guarantee and January 30 to appeal the sentence.
In the event that payment is not made before January 10, Burford has the right to request the seizure of Argentine assets.
In light of this situation, Milei announced the creation of the tax in the name of the current governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, who was the promoter of the expropriation of YPF.
“There is a problem, because we don’t have the money. We don’t have 16 billion dollars to pay. Yes, we have the ‘willing to pay’,” the Argentine head of state previously admitted.
YPF, OF THE STATE
The oil company YPF (Yacimientos Petrolófilos Fiscales), one of the main companies in the country, has the status of a public limited company and in which the Argentine State and the hydrocarbon-producing provinces own 51 percent of the shares. The remaining 49 percent is listed on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange.
YPF was acquired in 2012 by the State during a controversial operation that ended in the US courts, where Argentina was sentenced to pay 16 billion dollars, although the government only demanded compensation of five billion dollars.
Argentina bought 51 percent of the shares of YPF from the Spanish Repsol without making a public takeover offer to the rest of the shareholders, who claimed to have been harmed.
The vulture fund Burford Capital, owner of the assets of the Petersen Group, considered that Argentina should pay compensation.
The trial for the nationalization of YPF began in 2015 after the bankruptcy of the Petersen Group, which had entered the ownership of YPF. Burford Capital, a fund specialized in this type of litigation, bought the bankruptcies of Petersen Energía Inversora and Petersen Energía in Spain, the two companies created by the owners of the holding company to be able to file the lawsuit in the US.
START THE DNU
The neoliberal shock plan known as Milei’s Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) came into force from the first minute of yesterday, based on the Argentine Civil and Commercial Code.
The DNU includes 300 laws that will be eliminated or modified, with which it aims to deregulate the economy and includes the declaration of the state of public and economic emergency until December 31, 2025, variations in the labor market and health plans, the repeal of the rental law and the privatization of public companies and enabling sports corporations.
Promulgated on Thursday, December 21, the DNU does not specify its date of entry into force, although article 5 of the Civil and Commercial Code stipulates that it will automatically come into effect eight days after its publication in the Official Gazette. Now it must be endorsed by both houses of Congress.
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Finally, yesterday the government formalized its resignation from joining the BRICS group through letters addressed to the countries of the bloc, because “the incorporation of the Argentine Republic to the BRICS as a full member as of January 1, 2024 is not considered appropriate. ”.
The incorporation into the group of BRICS countries, which includes China, Russia, India, South Africa and Brazil, had been decided by former president Alberto Fernández.