This Thursday, November 21, the first public hearing was held to discuss the scope and effects of the financing law promoted by the National Government and the Ministry of Finance took the opportunity to defend this initiative again, arguing that there is a lot of misinformation on the subject. , since it is not true that the fiscal stability of the country is being put at risk.
During this space, convened by the Senate, Minister Ricardo Bonilla He assured that there are “historical errors” in the tax statute, which they seek to correct with the project and, in the process, generate the resources that the country needs to guarantee the care of vulnerable communities, encourage investment and bring the state offer to the entire territory. .
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“Additional resources are being sought, but they are being sought in the loopholes left by the tax statute, correcting historical errors that this norm has, setting and leveling the table in terms of different aspects,” said Bonilla González; for whom it must be recognized that the fiscal rule has been fulfilled.
The head of the Treasury portfolio insisted that this is not a tax reform, nor a measure that has not been used in previous governments to ensure the resources that the country needs. Likewise, he was emphatic that the costs will be lower and that Over time it has been shown that the economy is resilient and will not be affected by this rule.
Ministry of Finance and Public Credit
Private file
“The country became overindebted during the pandemic in 2020 and we went from 49% of GDP public debt to 61%. With a declining GDP in 2020, one says, as some point out, that the 2020 measurement is not true. But 2021 does. We had a growth rate of 10% and the debt was 60.7%. That is, if I don’t look at it against 2020 but against 2021, we went from 49% to 60.7%. In real and effective debt, more than 200 billion pesos. With these conditions, the fiscal rule was broken,” he added.
Tax adjustments
Regarding the warnings that have been made about the slowdownand the influence that the financing law would have on this phenomenon that affects the economy, Minhacienda highlighted that, on the contrary, its central objective is to implement tax stimuli that allow reactivating the economy and correcting historical inequities in the Colombian fiscal system.
“It is important that the country generates a downward path in the nominal rate of corporate income tax. It is not possible for us to continue saying that Colombia is the country that has the highest corporate rates and not look for a way to make it more flexible. This bill proposes making the nominal corporate income tax rate more flexible, lowering it from the current fixed thirty-five percent to a weighted average of twenty-seven point three,” said Bonilla.
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Touching on a point that generated controversy during the hearing and generated conflicting points among the analysts summoned, the Government referred to the elimination of the simple tax regime, since it has generated tax inequalities. by allowing individuals with high incomes to pay less taxes than wage earners.
“The project proposes to unify fiscal rules, establishing a nominal rate of 27% on profits, which will eliminate evasion and level the tax burden. This reinforces equity between taxpayers and increases transparency in the system,” he said.
National budget debate
César Melgarejo/ CEET
Digital bets and the tax change that is wanted to be made with companies who are dedicated to this activity, were also part of Ricardo Bonilla’s speech and there it was explained that they are simply reaching a space that did not have tax burdens, so an imbalance is going to be corrected.
“Technology has gradually led to citizens moving from physical bets to platform bets and today platform bets are the most important and are not recorded. But physical bets do. That is a historical error. It is about leveling the load and it is not true that they are going to break,” he said.
Finally, responding to criticism, Bonilla González insisted that these measures are necessary to achieve greater tax equity and in the face of concerns about possible adverse economic impacts, he indicated that the reduction of the corporate income rate will be gradual and fiscally neutral. in the medium term, ensuring significant benefits for companies from 2026.
