President Javier Milei’s government has secured preliminary approval in the lower house Chamber of Deputies for its ‘Súper RIGI’ investment incentive bill.
After several hours of debate, the initiative garnered 130 votes in favour, 106 against and seven abstentions, now passing on to the Senate.
The bill, which would create a Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones en Nuevas Industrias (Incentive Scheme for Major Investments in New Industries), is aimed at attracting large-scale investment in emerging high-technology industries.
Known as the Super RIGI, the programme is designed to encourage billion-dollar investments in frontier technologies on the basis of juicy tax breaks and Customs and exchange rate benefits, extending to bills linked to activities which do not exist in Argentina or are at an experimental stage.
The scheme targets industries such as the processing of critical minerals, biotechnology, battery manufacturing, renewable energy technologies such as green hydrogen, electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels, as well as small and medium-sized nuclear reactors, semi-conductors and Artificial Intelligence.
To qualify, projects must involve a minimum investment of US$1 billion – a significant increase on the US$200 million threshold required under the original RIGI framework created by President Milei’s government in 2024.
Like the original RIGI, participating projects in its bumped-up version will be granted fiscal, customs and foreign exchange stability for a period of 30 years.
The scheme itself will remain open for five years, with the possibility of a further extension. By comparison, the original RIGI operated for two years and was later extended for an additional year.
The Super RIGI is more narrowly focused than its predecessor, excluding natural resource and infrastructure projects, as well as expansions of existing ventures.
Among its principal incentives is a reduction in the corporate income tax rate to 15 percent. It also provides for accelerated depreciation, allowing investors to write off 60 percent of capital expenditure in the first year and 20 percent in each of the following two years. The regime further includes tax credit certificates that can be used to offset liabilities.
In addition, participants will benefit from exemptions on import duties, the elimination of export taxes, and the removal of operational restrictions and quotas.
The proposal also provides for the gradual liberalisation of export earnings. After three years, investors participating in the regime will be entitled to retain and freely dispose of 100 percent of the foreign currency generated through exports.
‘Cavemanland’
During debate, Budget Committee chairman Bertie Benegas Lynch (La Libertad Avanza-Buenos Aires Province) argued that the Super RIGI would help Argentina “escape Cavernicolandia,” or “Cavemanland,” arguing that the incentives in the bill are fundamental.
“We come from being cavemen and we need a law to protect property rights because we have scared off investments and because you don’t fight capital,” he maintained.
The libertarian lawmaker defended the initiative by highlighting that “civilised countries have already incorporated” the fiscal, monetary and Customs duty incentives and the legal security contemplated by the Super RIGI, which is why “they are as well-off as they are.”
Benegas Lynch also questioned the opposition, assuring that capital avoids places “where there are politicians like you lot” and describing the stances against the Super RIGI as “corrosive and destructive.”
“Capital has no homeland, it goes where there is profit and institutional security,” concluded Benegas Lynch.
Opposition deputy Mario Manrique (Unión por la Patria-Buenos Aires Province) called for an “end to that talk about Argentina being outside the international context” in response.
The Kirchnerite SMATA auto workers union secretary-general assured that “this bill is not a law but a deal between private parties to rubber stamp it as if we were notaries.”
“This is part of a macabre plan to surrender the Argentine Republic and this bill ties in with the Glacier Law, the Inviolability of Private Property and the labour legislation,” he argued.
Radical lawmaker Lisandro Nieri (UCR-Mendoza) expressed his agreement with “the programmes of investment incentives in a context where subsidies are at record levels worldwide, whether direct subsidies, tax relief or reductions in the costs of financing.”
“On one hand, the balance of RIGI is very positive until now. There are currently 16 projects approved and an additional 25 under evaluation. Those already approved total US$30 billion with approximately 50,000 direct or indirect jobs created. And the 25 projects pending amount to US$111 billion,” he described.
The Mendoza deputy further attached importance to the Super RIGI “aiming for large-scale projects, sums superior to US$1 billion and activities not currently developed in this country.”
“This aims at our being able to attract those projects on a global scale which are looking around for where to settle,” underlined the UCR deputy.
‘Buy national’
Deputy Eduardo Falcone (Movimiento de Integración y Desarrollo, MID-Buenos Aires Province) celebrated that the government’s majority ruling had incorporated two changes proposed by his party and domestic business chambers.
Falcone was referring to the “Buy National” clause to destine at least 20 percent of the investment to local suppliers for the projects under the régime and the incentives being doubled when it comes to investment in research and development (R&D).
Registering her complaints, Victoria Tolosa Paz (Unión por la Patria) asked for an investment régime “but not one condemning the country to wasting an opportunity.”
“The basic discussion is that there is nothing more like cavemen than confusing investment with development,” she responded directly to Benegas Lynch.
“This investment régime lacks development guarantees. That is why we refuse this bill, not because we deny the capacity of the state to establish signals so that investments arrive,” she indicated.
–TIMES/PERFIL/NA
