Desire as currency
Ricardo Salinas Pliego and his conglomerate appeared on Thursday at the SAT. Their offer: express the “desire to pay” the 51 billion pesos they owe to the treasury. Just one day before the deadline, of course.
President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed it at a conference. Now there are technical tables between the authority and the company to determine the terms. They are not negotiations, they insist from the National Palace. They are to see the “scope of benefits and the reductions they can achieve.”
“Yes, they presented themselves to the Tax Administration System on Thursday, they raised their desire to pay,” Sheinbaum said.
The legal stuff is fascinating here. By expressing that intention within the deadline, Grupo Salinas is entitled to legal benefits. The question in the air is obvious: why wait until the last minute?
Perfect timing smacks of strategy, not late regret. The president herself admitted that this same issue must be resolved this week.
“This week it has to be resolved, yes,” he answered in the National Palace.
Meanwhile, the country’s fiscal memory remembers other similar cases. Large debtors, deadlines that are running out and tables that are being set up. The pattern repeats itself with almost bureaucratic precision.
The true test will not be the signing of an agreement. It will be seeing the money reach the public coffers. After all, in tax matters, wishes don’t pay bills.
