Pension, tax provisions scrapped from Argentina reform push to ease passage

The move is a concession by the government of libertarian President Javier Milei, who took office in December. He had said no changes to the text of the omnibus bill would be made, though the bill has faced opposition in Congress over concerns it would give Milei too much power.

Argentina's government has decided to withdraw the fiscal portion of a sweeping "omnibus bill" in Congress in order to facilitate its approval, Economy Minister Luis Caputo said in a press conference on Friday.

That section included proposals to reform the country's pension structure and tax scheme, Caputo explained. The move is a concession by the government of libertarian President Javier Milei, who took office in December.

He had said no changes to the text of the omnibus bill would be made, though the bill has faced opposition in Congress over concerns it would give Milei too much power. Caputo added that inflation - which Milei took office vowing to tackle and now stands at over 200% annually - has "slowed strongly" in the past two weeks.

He also said that his ministry would take control of the country's infrastructure portfolio, confirming earlier media reports that the government had moved to abolish the infrastructure ministry.