Paralysis puts almost 800 parking lots in check

In recent weeks, hundreds of images of cities in which wild animals walk or move without problems through the streets due to the absence of people and vehicles, were viralized, as a result of the quarantines established to prevent the spread of the Covid virus. 19.

In Córdoba there are no such postcards, but there are arteries with much less traffic flow. Hence, parking lots are another business in which the pandemic is impacting significantly.

“Our activity is dead. The collection is zero pesos. The only open beaches are those that have monthly payments, but they are at most 10 or 15 cars, and nothing else, “summarizes José Ipólito, owner of a parking on Rivera Indarte street and president of the Parking Lot Chamber of Córdoba.

Ipólito assures that in the provincial capital there are 785 beaches, of which less than 10 percent have monthly payments. “And if people don’t get paid or can’t work, then they won’t pay that monthly fee either,” he warns.

There are around three thousand people who work in the parking lots and who are mostly suspended (there are only minimal guards in the parkings with monthly payments), charging 68 percent of the total salary, in accordance with the agreement reached with the union, which is the same one that brings together workers at service stations.

For Ipólito, that’s a problem. “It is somewhat unfair because the stations at least something are working. Our beaches are closed. In some cases, some failed to pay March wages, and for April there is no peso directly. I went to manage the credits and got no response. I have seven employees and only in contributions are 200 thousand pesos, ”he reveals.

Tax cost

Another aspect that Ipólito mentions is the weight of the taxes, especially the municipal ones: the beaches pay a tribute for each of their parking spaces and that contribution was raised by more than 300 percent by the new administration that took office from from December.

“The land is monstrous, they pay very large taxes. My beach has 143 places and only for (the rate of) Commerce and Industry I pay more than 100 thousand pesos ”, indicates the businessman and leader of the sector.

In the case of development companies, although it is not their main business, but a “by-product”, there are many companies that when they execute buildings, also build beaches that they later manage on their own.

Novillo y Asociados is one of those cases. Its owner, Javier Novillo, agrees with Ipólito that the beaches are “super punished, because the collection went to zero and, to top it all, the taxes are atrocious”.

“If I look at it as a developer, it is not something that impacts much because business is thought long-term, and because we are more hit by other issues, such as not being able to continue with the works. But if I look at it as a beach owner, it is an extremely critical situation ”, he adds.

Ipólito sums it up in a few words: “If help doesn’t come, many will definitely close.”

Official platform: SMEs and entrepreneurs

Training support in the midst of quarantine.

The Ministry of Productive Development launched a virtual platform with the aim of developing the capacities of entrepreneurs, SMEs and intermediate support institutions. “Training (as its name is) is a very important tool, with specific and valuable content to enhance the capacities of entrepreneurs and SMEs,” said the secretary of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Entrepreneurs, Guillermo Merediz.