The fall in tax collection, added to the eventual approval of salary increase projects, plus the 4 projects that reduce and eliminate taxes, put finances and even salary payments and public works at risk, according to the Ministry of Finance .
Finance Minister Óscar Llamosas expressed his concern about parliamentary initiatives that could put the sustainability of public finances and economic recovery at risk.
“In a year that is complicated by the situation in the countryside due to the drought and the armed conflict, affecting with laws that seek to reduce the treasury’s ability to generate income and at the same time increase rigid expenses, is an explosive combination,” Llamosas warned. In an interview with Radio Uno.
The four projects that concern the Executive and that would imply a reduction of 450 million dollars in collection are:
The export regime for border cities
The elimination of the Selective Consumption Tax on fuels
VAT deductibility for certain goods
The elimination of VAT for the products of the basic basket
“Today in the current scenario without these laws having been approved, there is already a risk that the treasury cannot meet the collection goals established in the budget, if we add these initiatives to that (…) that can generate delays in payments, works stoppage and why not the stoppage of some rigid commitments (salaries) that the national government has”, recognized Llamosas.
The next revision of the Central Bank of Paraguay at the end of April is awaited, in relation to the projections of economic growth that was initially 3.7%, but that will clearly be lower with this change in outlook. This will in turn be transferred to the estimates of tax revenues, therefore, to the collection.
