The Central Bank of Argentina (the “BCRA“), through Communiqué “A” 7042 dated June 11, 2020 (the “Communiqué“), amended part of the provisions set forth in Communiqué “A” 7001 and Communiqué “A” 7030 in order to easing certain rules regarding access to the exchange market for foreign currency expenditures.
The modifications introduced through the Communiqué are the following:
- Cancellation of principal and interest on foreign debt.
Repeal the requirement to have an affidavit and/or require the prior approval of the BCRA to access the local exchange market for the cancellation of principal and interest on all types of foreign debt outstanding as of March 19, 2020, when the payment does not have a due date or the maturity of such debt has occurred prior to such date, established in point 1 of Communiqué “A” 7001.
- Requirements to make expenditures through the exchange market.
To make more flexible the amount of liquid foreign assets available that should be held to fall under the exception of requiring the prior approval of the BCRA to access the local exchange market provided for in point 1.a. of Communiqué”A” 7030. To this end, by virtue of the provisions of the Communiqué, the affidavit to be submitted in order to avoid the request of prior approval of the BCRA to access the exchange market must state that all holdings in foreign currency in the country are deposited in accounts at financial entities and that it does not have liquid foreign assets available on the day when access to the market is requested in an amount above the equivalent to US$ 100,000.
In turn, in the event that the customer has liquid external assets available in excess of US$ 100,000, the financial entity may accept an affifavit through which the customer leaves evidence that such amount is not exceeded, considering that, partially or totally, such assets comply with the following characteristics:
(i) were used during that day to make payments that would have had access to the exchange market;
(ii) were transferred in favour of the customer to a correspondent account with a local entity authorised to operate in foreign exchange;
(iii) are funds deposited in foreign bank accounts that were originally collected for the export of goods and/or services or advances, pre-financing or post-financing of exports of goods granted by non-residents, or in the sale of non-produced non-financial assets for which a period of 5 working days has not elapsed since their collection; and
(iv) are funds deposited in foreign bank accounts originated in financial indebtedness abroad and their amount does not exceed the equivalent to pay for principal and interest in the next 120 calendar days.
The Communiqué provides that until July 30, 2020, the filing of an affidavit indicating that on the day in which access to the exchange market is requested and in the previous 90 calendar days, no sales of securities with settlement in foreign currency or transfers of such securities to depository entities abroad have been arranged in the country and whose presentation exempts from the requirement of prior approval by the BCRA for customer transactions corresponding to outflows through the exchange market -including those that are carried out through swaps or arbitrage-, included in point 3. (a) of Communication ‘A’ 7001, as amended by point 4. of Communication ‘A’ 7030, shall be considered as covering only the period from 1 May 2020 inclusive.
- Payment of imports of goods with access to the exchange market.
Exempt from the BCRA’s prior approval for payment of imports of goods to goods that fall under Chapters 30 and 31 of the Mercosur Common Nomenclature (NCM) or are inputs for the local production of medicines, insofar as they are deferred payments or in view of operations that have been shipped as of 12.06.2020 or that, having been shipped earlier, have not arrived in the country before that date. In addition, an affidavit must be submitted stating that the inputs for the local production of medicines have such a condition.
In turn, the Communiqué also increased the amount for making payments for imports with pending customs registration established in point 2.2. vi) of Communiqué “A” 7030, from US$250,000 to US$1,000,000. Therefore, the filing of an affidavit established in point 2.1. of Communication “A” 7030 will not be required in order to access the foreign exchange market to make payments for imports with pending customs registration, as long as the amount pending regularization by the client for similar payments made as from September 1, 2019 does not exceed the equivalent of US$1,000,000, including the amount for which access to the foreign exchange market is requested.
This publication does not constitute a legal opinion on specific issues. If necessary, specialized legal advice should be sought.
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