Lost school campaign for mypes: 1 million kits will arrive in July

That the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) has allocated more than S/290 million for the purchase of kits will not prevent children from starting their school year unequipped and with last year’s uniforms, according to the mypes in charge, precisely, of their preparation.

Last Thursday, the MEF presented DU 003-2024 with 10 financial measures to serve different sectors hit by the recession. In the case of kits, the resources will be transferred to the Purchasing Executing Nuclei Myperu in order to solve, among others, the administrative management and “acquisition and distribution of notebooks, backpacks, sweatshirts and polo shirts” by the mypes, at the request of the Minedu.

For Susana Saldaña, president of the Gamarra Perú business association, it is impossible for the kits to arrive before July, since the arrangements had to be completed since last November. Furthermore, she questions whether the purchase of shoes has been changed to notebooks.

“In a hurry, make fabric It takes between 45 and 60 days; Then, in another month, the file and technical sheets should be available, if Produce acts efficiently. If in another month they put together the nucleus and launch the call, the mypes could have it in four months. The kits will arrive with the July report card.”says the leader.

In this sense, Saldaña assures that the 2,753 mypes that the MEF hopes to serve with the decree are insufficient, since there are more than 2 million. Instead, he demands that the Government comply with the law that directs the micro and small businesses 40% of its public purchases of all kinds, an investment equivalent to almost S/15,000 million a year, very far from what was announced.

“With the uniforms of the National Police of Peru (PNP), they spent the year saying that they were going to reach 1,500 mypes; The reality is that it will reach 500, barely 30%. And with the kits for our low-income school-age children, I don’t think it will reach more than 1,000 or 1,500,” Saldaña anticipates.

Rescue of boxes under magnifying glass

Another of the measures launched by the MEF is to allow municipal savings banks to capitalize their profits generated in 2023. The Administration Manager of Caja Piura, Javier Morante, views this lifeline with surprise, since 2023 was a good year for them.

In fact, 6 of the 11 savings banks of the Peruvian Federation of Municipal Savings Banks (Fepcmac) obtained, last year, almost half of the joint net profits of 2022: S/192 million, a year-on-year decrease of -40.2% due to the high cost of raising resources, which experienced an increase of 62.8% compared to the previous year.

It should be noted that a similar measure also occurred in pandemic, because the subsistence of the entities had to be ensured. But in the case of Caja Piura, for example, there are no cases of bankruptcy: its capitalization policy is not 50%, as the law says, but 75%. In itself, in regular times they capitalized beyond what the regulations require.

“We understood that, if there was a strong El Niño, inflation did not subside and the economy did not react, it was possible. The truth is, it surprised me, since we have a very good solvency indicator (Basiela indicator). Particularly, we have above 14, when the standard says 10,” he says.

But that’s not the underlying problem either. If we take into account that the new Minister of Economy, José Arista, has announced a policy of austerity in public spending, Morante does not see where the shareholders – the municipalities – could now get money from to invest in citizens.

“It does create a big budget problem for municipalities. because the provision of dividends for work to benefit the community had already been foreseen. Now, the big question is, if the boxes are not going to give them, who will?” highlights the specialist.

And the fact is that, in effect, although half of the boxes have been lost (that is, they have nothing to capitalize), the other has had meager profits, but with a fairly strong solvency ratio. It’s not that they are in trouble.

“It is paradoxical that the authorities of the financial system and the MEF will spend 2023 saying that the savings banks do not need strengthening patrimonial, and now they issue this measure without there being foundations of necessity,” he concludes.

MEF will also provide support to farmers

• DU 003-2024 also transferred S/100 million to the Fund for the Financial Inclusion of Small Agricultural Producers (FIFPPA) in order to continue providing credits to small agricultural producers under preferential conditions.
• Furthermore, with the purpose of avoiding over-indebtedness in the Regional governments and local, “compliance with fiscal rules will be a prerequisite for all subnational entities” to manage direct or guaranteed debt operations, the MEF said in a statement.

Reaction

Susana Saldaña, Pdta. from Gamarra Peru

“Since October we have asked that the purchase of kits be made viable under the nuclei of DU 058. But they have transferred it to a Produce program that has not been executed for a year with S/55 million from the PNP.”

Javier Morante, Gte. Caja Piura Administration

“Technically, any measure that strengthens financial institutions is good. But the context does not support this decision, the municipalities are unprotected when the MEF does not want to give them a penny.”