New governors' summit: Milei is being asked to provide millions of dollars for the ATN and the fuel tax.

Three weeks after the last meeting of governors, the Federal Investment Council (CFI) will meet again in Buenos Aires. The decline in tax revenue , acknowledged by the national government and directly affecting provincial coffers, is the point of concern to be addressed at the summit.

With a new twist: government representatives will be present, in an attempt to bridge the gap with the governors. Carlos Guberman, Secretary of the Treasury, and Lisandro Catalán or Guillermo Francos , representing the Ministry of the Interior, will be present. The meeting will be at 11:00 a.m. at the CFI headquarters, located at Azopardo 750.

It is speculated that the meeting scheduled for this Monday will advance two specific agreements . The first concerns the liquid fuel tax , which has a specific allocation for the provinces, which, according to the districts, the government is not implementing and which should be used for road works, housing, and urban transport subsidies. Representatives from all the provinces attended the last meeting, earlier this month.

"These are all issues that the government has eliminated, halted, or is not addressing. Therefore , it's very likely that there will be an agreement based on these allocations, which will go to the provinces' accounts under revenue sharing, so that the governors will be responsible for these issues," say the sources involved in the sharing.

The other point on which there could be an agreement is the sharing of the remaining ATN fund . "Currently, that amount is kept entirely by the Nation. The proposal is that a portion be kept by the Nation and the other portion be shared by the provinces," they argue.

The negotiations are taking place amid the government's admitted decline in tax revenue, which, according to sources close to the governors, " is worse than they had anticipated, falling an average of four points due to the decline in activity and the drop in consumption."

The summit will also take place prior to the May Council meeting convened by the government for next Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. at the Casa Rosada.

In an effort to advance their demands, many governors are analyzing a recent ARCA report circulating in the WhatsApp group comprised of the main provincial representatives who will meet this Monday at the CFI.

The text states that the tax burden in the provinces is at an all-time low and the lowest it has been in the last ten years . "This information runs counter to the Millennium Movement's demand that governors lower taxes," the provinces complain.

The data the governors are using is that, on the contrary, the National Government increased tax pressure compared to 2024 with 2023, that is, during Javier Milei's first year in office.

And since the report is published by ARCA , the provinces understand that the government itself is acknowledging that tax pressure has increased nationally and decreased in the provinces. The "Mileísta narrative," the governors say, reflects a different official position.

The official text shows a table comparing data from the last decade in terms of tax burden as a percentage of GDP . Provincial tax revenue has shown a significant decline in recent years.

Since 2015, with the exception of 2019 and 2025 when the figure was 4.8%, it has always been between 5% and 5.3% , i.e. a negative difference in revenue collection of between 0.2 and 0.5 percentage points.

The national rate, on the other hand, has been on the rise in the last year, going from 22.8% in 2023 to 23% in 2024. But it remains well below previous years, when the ratio reached levels of 25.5%, as in 2015, for example.

A paragraph from another report, but one put together by economic officials from one of the provinces , also lends credence to that argument, although it is more forceful.

"Now, in disaggregated terms, and contrary to what might be assumed, greater tax pressure is observed on the part of the National Government, which increased its ratio from 22.8% to 23% (+0.23 pp.; +1% YoY), while the Consolidated Government of Provinces and the City of Buenos Aires operated in the opposite direction, that is, reducing the tax burden on taxpayers from 5.06% to 4.84% of GDP (-0.22 pp.; -4.3% YoY)," he argues.

And, clearly siding with the provinces, he says even more. "Without going into further analysis, the trajectory observed by both levels of government contrasts substantially with what a "chainsaw" government would theoretically indicate, compared to "wasteful" provincial states or those with little regard for fiscal prudence.

Some argue, however, that the demands vary depending on the province . On the one hand, there are those most affected by the drop in revenue; on the other, there are those who closely monitor what will happen with the liquid fuel tax.