FX - New SIMI Category Applicable to Payment of Imports

On April 11^th, 2022, the Argentine Central Bank (the BCRA, after its acronym in Spanish) issued   Communique “A” 7488 dated April 11, 2022. This regulation adds the SIMI C category to access the foreign exchange market for the payment of imports of goods. This provision complements Communication "A" 7466 of March 3, 2022 for categories A and B.

Imports with an associated SIMI category C will have access to the foreign exchange market under the same conditions as a SIMI category A when the following conditions are met:

• The goods to be imported correspond to the Mercosur Customs Tariff Codes detailed in the Communication.
• The client has submitted an external auditor's certification stating that, if the transaction is done, inventories of raw materials and/or intermediate or final goods made from them will not exceed the levels required for its normal activity.
• The entity has an affidavit from the importer stating that, in the event that it and its economic group have been called to a price agreement by the Federal Government, they have not refused to participate in such agreements, nor have they failed to comply with the agreement in the event that they have a program in force.

In case of non-compliance with these conditions, the requirements for access to the foreign exchange market for payments related to an import associated with a SIMI category C declaration will be those required for a SIMI category B.

An annual limit of SIMI category C is established, as the difference between the limit assigned by the BCRA to category A and the higher of the two amounts considered for the purpose of establishing such limit.

The limit amount of SIMI category C will be equivalent to the proportional part of the annual limit accrued up to and including the current month. The equivalent of 20% of the annual limit, shall be added to such amount, provided that this does not result in an excess over such limit. If the amount indicated is less than USD 250,000, the latter amount or the annual limit, whichever is lower, shall be adopted.

It is worth mentioning that the provisions described in this article were incorporated to Section 10.14 of the BCRA's Amended Text under the title "Category of the declarations in the Integral Import Monitoring System (SIMI)" through Communication "A" 7490 of April 19^th, 2022.