The new National Customs Agency of Mexico (ANAM), which began operations at the beginning of this year, will have a budget of 860 million pesos, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP).
In accordance with the budget adjustments of the first quarter of the year, within the Ministry of Finance there were cuts and reallocation of spending. Thus, the total expense of the Tax Administration Service (SAT), in charge of Raquel Buenrostro, for 2022 went from 12,852 million pesos to 11,992 million.
In this way, the Treasury cut spending by the fiscal authority – who previously handled foreign trade matters through the General Customs Administration – to give ANAM a budget of 860 million pesos in its first year of operation.
“If their activities are similar to those they did at the SAT, the budget for starting up the institution may sound very good. It is difficult to follow up because, after the budget is approved, the Treasury makes changes without asking anyone for permission, so suddenly it is difficult to follow up on resources,” said Alejandra Macías, director of the Center for Economic and Budgetary Research (CIEP). .
ANAM was created, in accordance with the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with the aim of strengthening the Mexican customs system, thus being one more decentralized body of the SHCP, with technical, operational, administrative and management autonomy.
According to the decree, published in December, the SAT has to transfer the human, financial and material resources to ANAM for its operation, given that the treasury was the one with foreign trade powers.
“The Tax Administration Service may provide the National Customs Agency of Mexico with the communications and information technology services required to support its administrative functions until it can carry them out on its own, under the terms of the collaboration agreement. that it be celebrated to this effect, ”reads the decree.
Investment in customs, key to connectivity
Customs are one of the keys to connectivity in the country, which is why it is extremely important to invest in their infrastructure, the SHCP pointed out in the General Economic Policy Precriteria for 2023.
“In 2022, the administration of the Customs Fund continues, which implies an investment of 33,000 million pesos in maintenance and modernization works of the country’s 17 customs offices, which will increase the efficiency of trade flows and combat the smuggling of merchandise” , highlighted the dependency.
This year, in addition to the 49 existing customs, a new one will begin to operate: the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), which was inaugurated on March 21.
Collect more with less
The Quarterly Report of the Ministry of Finance reported that ANAM managed, in its first quarter of operation, to raise more money with fewer resources than was planned for the start of its operation.
ANAM calculates a value for this indicator for the first quarter of 2022 of 0.20 cents per 100 pesos collected, a figure lower than the 0.26 cents per 100 pesos forecast (in principle) for the period, observing a compliance of 130% “, specified the Ministry of Finance.
In total, 252,313 million pesos were collected in the first three months of the year, which was 0.8% higher compared to the same period of the previous year. “With ANAM, it is expected to see an increase in tax collection from foreign trade, as a result of the fight against informal trade,” the SAT mentioned in its latest report, who highlighted that tax collection at customs is still 1.6% below from 2018 levels.
The low level, explained the SAT, is due to the problem generated by informal trade, technical and crude fuel smuggling.
In detail, it was observed that the customs that leave the most tax collection to the public treasury are the maritime ones, which obtained resources for 128.162 million pesos in the first three months of the year, while the border customs left 83.300 million pesos and internal customs 40.850 millions of pesos.