Provisions of Law No. 13.653 On the Legal Regime of State Enterprises

DECADE No. 4.053/1955

Buenos Aires, March 23, 1955.

VISTO that Article 5 of Law No. 14.380 empowers the Executive Branch to establish the ordering of the provisions of Law No. 13.653 on the legal regime of operation of the State Enterprises, and attentive to the desirability of proceeding in that regard.

The President of the Argentine Nation,

Decrete:

Article 1 — The provisions of Act No. 13,653, as amended by Act No. 14,380, shall henceforth be cited in the numbering and text below:

Law No. 13.653 - Ordered Text

Article 1 — The activities of an industrial, commercial or exploitation of public services of the same nature, which the State, for reasons of public interest, considers necessary to develop, may be carried out by means of entities that will be generically called "Empresas del Estado".

State enterprises are subject: (a) to private law in all matters relating to their specific activities; and (b) to public law in all matters relating to their relations with the administration or public service in their charge.

Article 2 — State enterprises shall adjust their functioning to the provisions of this law, to that of its creation and to the respective organic statutes established by the executive branch.

The statutes of the companies shall specify at least:

Denomination

Home

Object

Capital

Organization

Management and administration

Requirements and incompatibility of the authorities

Faculty and obligations of the authorities

Recruitment regime

Financial system

Distribution of utilities.

Article 3 — State enterprises shall operate under the direct control of the executive branch for the purpose of guiding their activities, and notwithstanding any provision contrary to the respective organizational laws.

Art. 4o— The enterprises of the State shall submit annually to the executive branch, in the time and manner determined by it, the plan of action to develop during the following financial periods, accompanying a descriptive memory of the activities to be carried out by the company and a budget of exploitation that covers, in an integral way and by large sectors, the resources and erogations to be made during the next financial period, as well as the estimation of the probable results to be obtained. These plans and exploitation budgets will be communicated to the Honorable Congress of the Nation within 30 days of its approval.

Article 5 — Within the period determined by the executive branch, the companies will raise the report, General balance and accounts of winnings and losses of each financial period.

The Executive Branch will include this information in the first investment account to be submitted to Congress.

Article 6 — The Account of the Nation shall exercise the control of the agencies referred to in this Law, in all aspects related to its economic-financial and property development, guiding this task in the form of:

(a) Verify the movement of funds, values and species, as well as the results of the exploitation;

(b) Observe any act or procedure that does not conform to the conferred mandate.

The aforementioned control will be exercised through the "accounting audit" procedure in the way that the executive branch will regulate.

Art. 7o — The Executive Power is empowered to form state enterprises with the services currently in its possession and which, by their nature, are covered by this law, as well as to adapt the provisions of the organic laws, which govern their current functioning, to the needs and characteristics of their new institutional organization, giving account to the H. Congress.

Article 8 — The responsibilities of the authorities of the State enterprises shall be determined according to the rules applicable to public officials and those governing for directors of the anonymous companies as they amount to greater legal protection for the injured interest.

All staff of State enterprises are subject to liability proceedings under the Accounting Act No. 12.961.

Art. 9o — In the future, State enterprises, excluding those responsible for the provision of a public service, shall be subject to all existing national, provincial and municipal taxes, fees and contributions, or to be created, with the exception of income taxes, extraordinary benefits, eventual and substitutional gains to free transfer of goods.

The enterprises of the State, whatever their nature, shall enter into general income the percentage established in the respective regulations, on the liquid and realized profits determined according to the rules to which the executive branch will dictate.

Art. 10. — State enterprises cannot be declared bankrupt. In cases where the executive branch resolves the dissolution or liquidation of a State enterprise, it shall determine the destination and procedure to follow in respect of the assets that constitute its assets.

Please refer to the Executive Branch to arrange for the full or partial transfer or disposal of the assets of State enterprises, when reasons of general interest justify it, in charge of giving account to H. Congress.

The net production of the operations of the executive branch, pursuant to this article, shall be entered into the National Treasury.

The State shall answer for the payment of the non-covered liabilities.

Art. 11. — Laws 12,961 and 13,064 and any other legal provision that opposes the provisions of this Act shall not apply to State enterprises.

Art. 12. — This law shall not be applicable to the institutions that make up the Official Banking System, which shall continue to operate under the control regime that establish their respective laws, without prejudice to the fact that the balance sheets of the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic are certified by one of the National Major Accountants, designated for the purpose by the Executive Branch,

Art. 13. - Default all provisions opposing this law.

Art. 2o — Remind the Honorable Congress of the Nation to copy this decree.

Art. 3o — This decree will be endorsed by the Minister Secretary of State in the Department of Finance.

Art. 4o — Communicate, publish, give to the General Directorate of the National Register and go to the National Accounts.

PERON. - Pedro J. Bonanni.