Economy Minister Luis Caputo said on Friday that the government will drop the fiscal chapter of the omnibus bill. The decision is meant to pave the way for provincial lawmakers to pass the legislation in Congress, given that the financial discussions were the main sticking point in the negotiations between the Milei administration and the governors.

“We are still committed to zero deficit, and by doing this, we are clearing a path for the passage of the bill,” Caputo said in a press conference at the Casa Rosada. He added that, with these changes, the government will implement harsher austerity measures than what it had originally planned.

“This implies more austerity for everyone — for politicians, for the federal government, and for the provinces,” he said. “All Argentines have been cutting expenses.”

Caputo said that parts of the bill that the government will retire deal with tax amnesty, a pension moratorium, the advance payment of the personal assets tax, as well as changes to export duties and the formula that calculates automatic raises for pensions. He also stated that the lowering of the the income tax law the government is seeking, a bill Milei recently sent to Congress, has also been placed temporarily on hold. 

After protracted negotiations, the omnibus bill was scheduled to be voted on Thursday but was later postponed to next week to try and secure all the votes, a spokesperson for Lower House President Martín Menem told the Herald.

Together with President Javier Milei’s mega-decree, the omnibus bill seeks to reshape the way in which the country’s economic and administrative systems work. The bill originally aimed to give Milei the faculty to legislate without resorting to Congress for two years, but it was reduced to one after negotiations with members of some opposition parties.