VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #1426/01 2911230
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171230Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2259
RUCNMER/MERCOSUR COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 001426 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EFIN ECON EINV PREL PGOV AR
SUBJECT: Argentina's Buenos Aires Province Taxman: Public Profile, 
Political Ambitions 
 
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Summary 
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¶1. (SBU) Santiago Montoya, tax chief of Buenos Aries province, 
Argentina's largest, is riding a wave of popularity following 
high-profile tax compliance sweeps of wealthy neighborhoods. This 
popular support, he told Ambassador, demolishes the Argentine 
political truism that zealous tax enforcement is a vote losing 
proposition.  Argentina's cut-off from international borrowing 
following the 2001/2 economic crisis did some good, he said, in 
forcing the GoA to turn inward and focus on generating internal tax 
revenues to sustain the state.  But Montoya called for the Argentine 
state to move beyond a narrow focus on maximizing revenue collection 
towards a broader effort to foster credible state institutions that 
can underpin society's acceptance of a culture of tax compliance. 
On Argentina's political culture, Montoya dismissed the opposition 
as hopelessly disorganized.  He will be traveling to Washington 
October 22-24 to attend an IDB-sponsored Latin American tax policy 
forum.  During that time he hopes to meet and establish ties with 
senior US IRS officials.  Montoya admires the pragmatism of U.S tax 
collection models and said he is eager to adapt workable U.S. tax 
mechanisms to his province's specific needs.  End Summary 
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Tax Populism in Buenos Aires Province 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) Santiago Montoya, Executive Director of the Province of 
Buenos Aires' tax authority ARBA (Agencia de Recaudacion de la 
Provincia de Buenos Aires) and his brother/chief of staff Daniel 
Montoya met with Ambassador October 14.  ARBA is an autonomous 
provincial agency created December 2007 to manage Province of Buenos 
Aires fiscal policy and consolidate tax and revenue functions 
previously controlled by the provincial Secretariat of Revenues. 
ARBA was structured to function with greater autonomy, operational 
and technical capabilities that its pre-cursor provincial tax 
collection entity. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Discussion focused on a recent editorial Montoya placed in 
Argentina's daily of record La Nacion that detailed his view that 
the Argentine state needs to move beyond its narrow focus on 
maximizing revenue collection towards a broader effort to foster 
credible state institutions that can underpin society's acceptance 
of a culture of tax compliance.  Such a shift in federal and 
provincial government focus, he said, is a necessary pre-condition 
for citizens to support a progressive tax regime and an enforcement 
system that can successfully "whiten" Argentina's large informal 
economy and allow organizations like ARBA to target blatant tax and 
IPR abuses like the informal La Salada market. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Montoya argued that popular support for his tax compliance 
sweeps of wealthy private neighborhoods demolishes former provincial 
governor Felipe Sola's political truism that zealous tax enforcement 
is a surefire vote losing ("pincha votos") proposition.  "People 
really want a more ordered society and my (tax collection) campaign 
has united people.  ARBA is doing no more than applying the law," he 
said. In this context, Montoya noted the silver lining of 
Argentina's 2001/2 default was that the disappearance of new foreign 
funds to sustain government spending.  This forced the GoA to turn 
inward, focus on generating internal tax revenues to sustain the 
state and so turn its attention to improving tax compliance and 
collection. 
 
¶5. (SBU) In response to the Ambassador's question on the GoA's 
confrontation with the agricultural sector and failed effort to 
legislate variable commodity export tariffs, Montoya called the 
Kirchner administration's intransigent stance a major political and 
economic error.  He said he had told his friend and former colleague 
Interior Minister Randazzo that the additional +/- US$ 800 million 
(0.4% of GDP) that the GoA was looking to collect via higher export 
tariffs could have been obtained at far less political cost by 
focusing GoA energies on normal tax collections and on building a 
tax compliance culture. 
 
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Montoya's Political Philosophy 
------------------------------ 
 
¶6. (SBU) Montoya acknowledged that the popularity and media 
attention paid to his tax collection campaigns have raised his 
public profile ("People want their pictures taken with me - that's 
never happened to a provincial tax collector before!").  In 
response, opposition provincial parliamentarians have attempted to 
blunt his efforts, Montoya said, by presenting a bill to repeal 
and/or limit some of ARBA's special powers to attach taxpayer bank 
accounts and assets without a prior judicial order.  And 
"troublesome" unions within Montoya's own ABRA organization have 
accused him of "taking orders from Washington" because of his prior 
work under the (Washington-consensus-oriented) Economy Minister 
Domingo Cavallo in the 1990s. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Turning to Argentina's political culture, Montoya (who 
according to media reports has recently formally joined the Peronist 
party) dismissed the opposition as hopelessly disorganized.  He 
rejected Buenos Aires City mayor Maurico Macri's "anti-progressive" 
stance, and called Elis Carrio "simply out of control."  For 
Argentina to evolve beyond its currently fractious and enervating 
political dynamic, Montoya concluded, it will be necessary to 
establish a "Second Argentine Republic" on France's post World War 
II model to build a new national consensus on a supporting and 
sustaining a norm- and rule-bound society. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
Seeks Meeting/Cooperation with US IRS Officials 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Montoya noted he will be traveling to Washington October 
22-24 to attend an IDB-sponsored Latin American tax policy forum. 
During that time he hopes to meet and establish ties with senior US 
IRS officials and asked for Embassy assistance in identifying 
appropriate IRS interlocutors (Embassy passed on this request to 
U.S. Treasury Western Hemisphere officers).  Montoya said he admired 
the pragmatism of U.S tax collection and anti-trust enforcement 
models and said he is eager to adapt workable U.S. revenue 
collection models to his province's specific needs.  ARBA will adopt 
and adapt whatever revenue collection models work, he said, 
recalling that had earlier signed cooperation agreements with French 
tax authorities in 2005 (when Felipe Sola was provincial governor)as 
well as with tax authorities of Italy and Spain.  He said he had 
traveled to Chile to study and copy their system which allows tax 
authorities to impound goods being transported without proof of 
required tax payments.  And he said he has copied Canada's tax and 
regulatory system on burgeoning call center operations in the 
province.  "Whatever collection systems work well will work for us," 
he concluded. 
 
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Bio Data: Santiago Montoya 
-------------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) Santiago Montoya is the Executive Director of ARBA (Agencia 
de Recaudacisn de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, the tax collection 
agency of the province) since its creation in December 2007.  Prior 
to that, he served as Undersecretary of Public Revenues of the 
Province of Buenos Aires (2001-2007), advisor to the provincial 
Ministry of Production and Economy (2000-2001), and as consultant to 
various international organizations, including the IDB, World Bank, 
and Japan Eximbank.  Montoya also worked for federal GoA 
institutions including the Secretary of the Treasury of the Republic 
of Argentina, the office of the Chief of Cabinet, and of the General 
Coordinator of the DGI (Direccion General Impositiva, equivalent to 
the U.S. IRS) as well as private companies.  From 1991 to 1993, he 
worked as Director of the IERAL-Fundacion Mediterranea (highly 
regarded economic think tank) magazine, then managed by former 
Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo.  Montoya is a classic car 
aficionado and owns a 1959 Impala ("with fins!") which he proudly 
exhibits.  Montoya is originally from Cordoba and holds a business 
administration and accountancy degree from the Universidad Nacional 
de Cordoba. 
 
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Comment 
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¶10. (SBU) Montoya appear a well read, thoughtful, media savvy, and 
politically ambitious player in Governor Scioli's Province of Buenos 
Aires administration.  In light of his recent formal affiliation 
with the Peronist party, recent media reports speculate that Montoya 
may run as a Lower House federal or provincial Diputado in 2009 
interim elections.  Other Embassy contacts in the federal government 
speculate that Montoya would be more interested in building his tax 
compliance profile further by moving up to run the national (AFIP) 
tax administration.  Montoya himself noted that Cabinet Chief Massa 
and Interior Minister Randazzo have asked him to think about moving 
to the federal government. 
 
WAYNE