Argentina's new Treasury Minister Nicolas Dujovne said he would propose a broad tax reform focused on slashing taxes on salaries and banking in interviews with La Nacion and other local papers published on Tuesday. Dujovne officially joined the government on Monday, a week after center-right President Mauricio Macri fired Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay citing differences in management style and split his job into two ministries, treasury and finance.

Dujovne said the tax burden on salaries was "ridiculous" at around 40 percent and pushed workers into the informal sector. He estimated that 35 percent of Argentina's economy was informal. Dujovne's focus would be reducing costs to make Latin America's No 3 economy competitive again, he said, adding he would need "a few months" to prepare a tax reform to propose to the rest of the cabinet.

Copyright Reuters, 2017