The Standby Agreement signed with the IMF in 2009 and currently under revision (see sidebar) stipulates that the government is to increase its tax revenue by 1.5 to 2 percentage points of GDP in the 2011-2013 period and bring the overall tax burden back to the 15% level it reached in 2008. Initially Fernández said he would seek to achieve this, along with the civil society demand (and his campaign pledge) to raise expenditure on education up from 2.8% of GDP to 4%, by raising existing tax rates and reducing exemptions and evasion but not by introducing new taxes. However, the proposal submitted by Fernández on 31 May, surprisingly, included new taxes. In particular, it calls for a unified 10% tax on the overall net sales of gambling businesses. More controversially, it also introduces a 1% tax on all assets held by financial institutions such as multiple banks, savings and loans associations, savings banks, and credit corporations.
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