FEHGRA proposes a payroll mechanism for discussion
Daniel Prieto, president of the Federación Empresaria Hotelera Gastronómica de la República Argentina, has asked the national government to bring back a mechanism that lets employers offset part of their social security contributions against value added tax. He set out the request in an interview with the outlet Mensajero Turístico. FEHGRA published its item on the remarks on 18 September 2026.
Prieto said the strong fall in consumption is hitting hotel and restaurant businesses. He said the federation is asking for specific tools for a labour-intensive sector, at no additional fiscal cost, so that companies can hold their structures until activity and purchasing power recover.
The instrument Prieto named
Prieto named the mechanism directly. He said the federation put a tool on the table for discussion, a mechanism along the lines of the old Decreto 814, to offset part of employer contributions against VAT.
Mensajero Turístico frames the proposal inside a wider claim across the tourism chain. The claim is that macroeconomic recovery should reach the cost structure of companies, and the labour cost in particular. For hotel and food service operators, the stated aim is to cross the period of lower consumption without cutting operating capacity or jobs.
How Decreto 814/2001 was written
Decreto 814/2001 is dated 20 June 2001. Article 2 set a single rate of 19.50 percent on employer contributions against payroll destined for the social security subsystems. Article 8 put the decree in force from 1 July 2001, for contributions accruing from that date.
The preamble states the intent. It gives employer contributions the character of a value added tax credit in determined cases, and sets the credit to vary in intensity across areas and regions of the country. Anexo I set that credit as percentage points by zone.
What ended the mechanism
The record shows the sequence of changes. Decreto 984/2001 substituted article 4, published in the Boletín Oficial on 6 August 2001. Ley 25.723 cut the Anexo I percentages by 1.5 points, published on 17 January 2003. Article 168 of Ley 27.430 derogated Anexo I, published on 29 December 2017. Article 26 of Ley 27.541 abrogated the decree, published in the Boletín Oficial supplement on 23 December 2019, page 2.
FEHGRA's own record carries the request, the instrument named and the reasoning behind it. It carries no response from the national government.
What FEHGRA says it will not ask for
Prieto said he raised the position in his opening address at Hotelga 2026, the trade fair at La Rural in Buenos Aires. FEHGRA published that address on 14 September 2026, and the fair ran to Friday 4 September 2026.
In that address Prieto said no hotel or food service owner would be seen asking for privileges. He said the sector asks for attention, on the basis that hotels and restaurants generate hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country. The fair is organised by FEHGRA, the Asociación de Hoteles de Turismo de la República Argentina and Messe Frankfurt Argentina.
The hotel association's parallel case
Gabriela Ferrucci, president of the Asociación de Hoteles de Turismo de la República Argentina, made a related argument to the same outlet. She said the outstanding work sits in the microeconomy and the domestic market, and that internal consumption has to recover to sustain destinations that depend on Argentine travellers.
Ferrucci said consolidating activity requires easing the tax burden, with particular focus on the tax on labour. She also called for work on internal connectivity, through more domestic flights and better national roads.
The stabilisation position
Prieto said economic stabilisation is a necessary condition for business development. He said the private sector has no possibility to develop without a healthy economy.
He added that the improvement in macroeconomic variables coexists with a strong contraction of domestic demand, and that the sector has carried a large effort of its own in adapting supply, prices and rates.
Scale of the sector making the ask
FEHGRA states on its own site that it groups more than 84,000 hotel and food service establishments through its member entities. Prieto has held the federation's presidency across the 2025-2027 term.
Where the proposal stands
The FEHGRA item records the request, the instrument named and the reasoning behind it. It records no further detail on whether the mechanism has been taken up.