The government of Argentina announced on Monday the dissolution of the Federal Administration of Public Income (AFIP), Argentina’s bloated revenue and customs service.

The decision is part of President Javier Milei’s “reduction of the State and the elimination of inefficient structures” policy. AFIP will be replaced by the Customs Collection and Control Agency (ARCA), a simpler, streamlined, “less costly, and less bureaucratic” entity with significantly lower salaries for its top positions.

“The government is very happy to announce that, as of today, AFIP will cease to exist. In its place, the Customs Collection and Control Agency will be created, with a simplified structure,” Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni told reporters at a press conference on Monday.

Adorni explained that substituting AFIP with ARCA will result in the elimination of 45 percent of senior positions and 31 percent of lower positions. The spokesman stressed that the reduction represents “an elimination of 34 percent of the structure and generates an annual savings of 6.4 billion pesos (roughly $6.5 million).”

The presidential spokesman further explained that some 3,100 AFIP employees — 15 percent of its current workforce — who were “irregularly hired” during the previous administration of socialist former President Alberto Fernández will be relocated to other positions.

“The measure is based on the current oversizing of its structure, which has shown limitations in the capacity to respond in an agile and efficient manner to the demands of the tax, customs and social security system, affecting the administration of public resources and the control of customs activities,” Adorni explained.

The Argentine presidency confirmed the announcement in an official statement released shortly after Adorni’s press conference, stressing that the reduction of its personnel is an “essential” step to “dismantle the unnecessary bureaucracy that has hindered the economic and commercial freedom of Argentines.”

The Argentine presidency explained that ARCA will eliminate AFIP’s Hierarchical Account for high positions, which will significantly reduce the salary of the agency’s head.

Presently, the presidency explained in the statement, the head of AFIP earns 32 million Argentine pesos ($32,500) per month. The reduction will bring the salary in line with what a minister of the nation earns, 4 million pesos (about $4,000).

The reduction in salaries will also affect the salaries of the Directors of the General Directorate of Taxes (DGI) and the General Directorate of Customs (DGA), who currently receive 17 million pesos a month and will receive a salary equivalent to that of a Secretary of the Nation.

According to government sources consulted by the Argentine newspaper La Nación, the now-dissolved AFIP’s top hierarchical salaries far exceeded those of the president of the republic, ministers, and members of the Supreme Court of Justice.

The new Argentine revenue service’s top hierarchy will reportedly retain current AFIP head Florencia Misrahi as general administrator but will have two new general directors, one in charge of taxes and one in charge of customs.

“The Argentina of fiscal voracity is over. What belongs to each Argentine is his and no one else’s. No State bureaucrat has the power to tell an Argentine what to do with his property,” Adorni said. “As the principle that the president announced on December 10 at the time of his inauguration states, liberalism is the unrestricted respect for the life project of others based on the principle of non-aggression in defense of life, property, and freedom.”

“That liberalism is what led us to be one of the main powers in the world at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, and we want to move towards that Argentina without AFIP, without INADI [“anti-racism” government office dissolved by Milei in August] and without any other organization that curtails the freedom of good people,” he continued.

Adorni stressed to reporters that the government’s intention is to establish more precise control and evaluation systems, improving transparency and accountability “in pursuit of a more efficient and results-oriented public management.”

President Javier Milei celebrated the dissolution of AFIP on his social media accounts, posting a message that read “Goodbye AFIP” on his Twitter account and a picture on his Instagram account that read, “salute the AFIP that is leaving,” featuring a chainsaw with the message “less state” written on it.

Milei followed up his Instagram post with another one featuring an artificial intelligence-generated picture of a lion drinking from a mug that reads “AFIP tears” which he accompanied with his widely famous catchphrase, “Long live liberty, damn it!” 

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.