Through Decree 748/2026, published this Tuesday in the Official Bulletin, the Executive Power modified the regulations of the Incentive Regime for Large Investments (RIGI) with the firm purpose of explicitly incorporating the railway infrastructure sector. This regulation is signed by the President of the Nation, Javier Milei, the Chief of Cabinet, Diego Santilli, and the Minister of Economy, Luis Andrés Caputo.
The initiative arises as a direct response to the deplorable state of the Argentine railway network, built largely several decades ago and today suffering from alarming operational wear due to the neglect of the Kirchnerist administrations.
Facing an infrastructure declared in emergency until mid 2028, the administration of Javier Milei has decided to break with state tutelage and incentivize genuine private investments in renewal, replacement, transformation, and development of the existing railway infrastructure, as well as all necessary accessory infrastructure for national logistics.
According to the very foundations of the regulation, the main objective is to “provide greater precision and predictability to the framework of investments that fall on pre-existing railway infrastructure, addressing the nature of the executed works and their effects on operational conditions and the transport capacity of the infrastructure”.
In this way, the Government fundamentally modifies Decree 749/2024 (which originally regulated the RIGI created under the historic Law of Bases) to grant maximum guarantees of legal security to the capital that decides to invest in the country.
In its vision of turning Argentina into a pole of technological development free from bureaucratic obstacles, Decree 748/2026 also incorporated key benefits for the technology sector. Under the new scheme, the incorporation of a new product will be formally considered as the expansion of a pre-existing project.
To access these advantages, the regulation requires rigorous parameters of innovation and financial seriousness:
The development must involve a real innovation and present differences of at least 50% in its components compared to what already exists.
A minimum computable investment of US$250 million is required.
The product must have a market useful life cycle of up to 10 years.
Unlike the waste of public resources of the past, the new RIGI scheme sets a very strict technical limit: the tasks of conservation and current maintenance are strictly excluded from the regime.
The decree clearly differentiates between works that simply preserve existing conditions and those real capital investments that modify, modernize, or expand the productive capacity of the infrastructure.
Under this technical premise, the railway infrastructure works that qualify for entry into the regime are:
The construction of new railway tracks.
The duplication of tracks on already existing routes.
