While Neuquén plans to transform a fiscal cost of just US$6 million into US$1.8 billion in royalties thanks to investments from the RIGI, the province of Buenos Aires remains stagnant under the interventionist model of Axel Kicillof. The contrast once again demonstrates that reducing taxes and offering clear rules can expand economic activity and increase state resources.
The governor of Neuquén, Rolando Figueroa, highlighted the expected results from the Incentive Regime for Large Investments promoted by the government of Javier Milei and assured that the positive fiscal impact for his province will be significant over the next four years.
“The RIGI has been extremely successful. We had a fiscal cost, due to the reduction of the Income Tax caused by the RIGI, of 6 million dollars in the next four years,” Figueroa explained. He detailed that during that same period, the Neuquén state will receive around US$1.8 billion in royalties generated by the projects that will arrive in the province.
“In those four years, royalties of 1.8 billion will be generated. That is, the 6 million lost from Income Tax is multiplied by 300,” emphasized the provincial leader.
The Neuquén case reflects one of the main foundations of the liberal economic program: lower tax pressure can incentivize new investments, expand production, and ultimately generate much higher revenue than that obtained through high taxes on a paralyzed economy.
The situation contrasts with the province of Buenos Aires, where Kicillof maintains a scheme based on strong state intervention, high tax costs, a large bureaucratic structure, and an economic policy opposed to the market reforms promoted by the national administration.
In this context, Javier Milei again questioned the Buenos Aires governor during an interview with LN+ and attributed the provincial stagnation to the ideological orientation of his management. “The province of Buenos Aires does not grow because it has a communist as governor,” the President stated.
Milei's statements about the governor
Milei also recalled Kicillof's tenure at the Ministry of Economy during the presidency of Cristina Kirchner and pointed out that, despite having managed the national economy in a favorable international context, his results were negative. “He was the minister of the inmate, of the thief, he was minister in the best context in history and he crashed it,” he asserted.
In this way, the Neuquén case serves as the opposite of the Buenos Aires model. Neuquén will initially forgo a small portion of taxes to attract investments and multiply its income through royalties, while Buenos Aires remains trapped in recipes from the last century and suffocating pressure on the private sector.
