Milei seeks second chance from Congress with scaled-back reform

President Javier Milei’s government is moving to deregulate Argentina’s telecommunications market.

President Javier Milei circulated a new, scaled-back version of his sweeping reform bill to Argentine lawmakers, in his clearest tilt toward political pragmatism since taking power.

The draft floated late Tuesday splits Milei’s plan in parts before he resubmits it to Congress as early as next week.

Since Milei’s original bill was torn apart by the lower house Chamber of Deputies in February, his team has met with congressional members and provincial governors dozens of times to pin down a final text.

The drawn-out revision process illustrates Milei’s willingness to listen to lawmakers’ input, a pivot from his previous attempts to ram hundreds of reforms through without prior consensus.

“Today we find ourselves confronted with a second chance. We are confident we are at another level of maturity,” Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni told reporters Wednesday morning in Buenos Aires.

Milei will expand the tax bracket to include more earners in one fiscal reform bill, complemented by a watered-down ‘omnibus’ bill with 279 articles — less than half the original version — to privatise or partially privatise over a dozen public companies, notably excluding oil giant

YPF SA.

The bill, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg, also expands the president’s executive powers on energy, economy and finance for one year.

It allows Milei to inter vene in the nation’s social security agency and special-purpose federal government funds worth millions of dollars. The proposed elimination of the latter triggered fierce opposition from even moderate lawmakers, leading to the original bill’s defeat in February.

Lawmakers from moderate blocs say they still need to review the fine print, however Adorni said the text had won over the most important stakeholders. The bills could go to committee hearings as early as next week.

Interior Minister Guillermo Francos will meet with the country’s biggest umbrella trade union to discuss a new labour reform Wednesday afternoon, which was excluded from the new bills.

Milei tried to overhaul the country’s onerous labor laws in a sprawling December executive decree, but was blocked by the courts weeks later. A new bill that includes labour reforms could come from the moderate Radicales bloc instead, La Nacion newspaper reported.

In a Bloomberg News interview last week, the president said his 4,000 reforms to deregulate the Argentine state will wait until after next year’s midterm elections if he can’t muscle them through now.

On Wednesday April 10, the La Libertad Avanza leader’s government issued Decree 302/2024 releasing the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) market of price caps and controls that regulate telephone, cable television and Internet services.

“ICT Service licensees will set their prices, which must be fair and reasonable, cover operating costs and tend towards an efficient service and reasonable operating margin,” reads the text of the decree.

The decision was made via the intervention by ENACOM, as defined by the Executive Branch last January. Licensee Juan Martín Ozores is currently the body’s

Comptroller.

Milei’s DNU amends Argentina Digital Law No. 27,078 and represents a step towards the de-regulation of prices in the sector, which the government said will “encourage competition and investment, and to improve the quality of the service for users across the country.”

Milei recently made a similar intervention into the private healthcare market. In response prices have soared, outpacing runaway inflation.

Earlier this week, Economy Minister Luis Caputo expressed concern at the soaring cost of the schemes, describing it as an “attack” on the middle class.