The Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres), Ana Lya Uriarte, highlighted this Saturday in Chilevisión News the importance of the tax reform for the changes and proposals that the Government intends to execute in the coming months.
This week, the ruling party managed to get the Finance Commission to approve tax reform in general, but with the votes against from the right.
In addition, deputies presented a new indication to the tax reform project to compensate for the decrease in collection that the original proposal of the Government has suffered and that aimed to collect more than 4% of GDP. This is the Tax on Financial Transactions –or “Robin Hood” Tax–, which is progressive in nature, attractive in economies with high rates of income or wealth inequality, and whose tax burden falls mainly on high net worth taxpayers.
The initiative, whose model is currently applied in 32 countries –such as Germany, France, South Africa, China, Japan and Brazil–, in the Chilean case would aim to raise around 2,900 million dollars a year. The proposal was known and valued by the Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, and from the parliamentary body they hope to have the sponsorship of the Executive to achieve its inclusion in the tax reform.
To improve the quality of life
The Secretary of State pointed out that this reform is considered by the Government “as the mother of all battles”, and stressed that she hopes that the opposition will share “a very clear objective”: “We want that money to improve the quality of life of Chileans and Chileans”.
“Yes, tax reform is like the mother of all battles, in the sense that it has been an objective of this government and Minister (Mario) Marcel (of Finance) has been very clear on this.”
He added that “we wanted to return to the rule of fiscal balance where permanent expenses are also financed with permanent income, and that is higher income through taxes or taxes.”
“We have increased the Universal Guaranteed Pension to 90% of people over 65 years of age. Today it is at $193,000, how good it would be to be able to announce the news that your pension will increase to $250,000. For those who do not have that difference of more than 60 thousand pesos, there is a lot that can change,” he stressed and reiterated that “we hope to meet the opposition in that view, a view of a better life.”
As he specified, “it is not a competition for who wins one more or one less rooster, it is not a small political fight, it is about all of us going together, improving more and more what we came to politics for, we hope to be able to dignify more to do good things. Citizens will thank us all if we achieve these goals,” he said.
TPP-11
On the other hand, the minister also referred to the trade agreement TPP-11, which has divided the ruling party, with the opposition and the PS in favor, and the PC and Broad Front against. This week it was to be voted on in the Senate, but it was postponed.
In addition, the government of President Gabriel Boric has expressed the need to wait for the result of the negotiation of the so-called “side letters”, in reference to the exceptionalities regarding the agreement.
“There are opinions for and against, and both are issued by people who we should not disqualify. There are opinions that it is an opportunity and not only from investment and export, but thinking about the alignments, but also there is the other side where they say that we should actually push for another type of development that would focus more on our territory,” admitted Uriarte.
“We have positions that are legitimate and respectable from my point of view” and in the Government “we understand that there are sensitivities and we accept them”, but finally “the Senate has in its desk the power to decide whether to approve or reject it”, remarked the socialist.
For the Government, as he indicated, “it would have been fantastic to be able to arrive with the side letters lists, the treaty, and shall be voted on in a manner in which the treaty and the side letters. The times of the Senate would indicate that the itinerary will be different and well, the senators already practically have their votes decided.”
constitutional process
On the other hand, Minister Uriarte returned to address the conversations that are being carried out by the political forces with a presence in Parliament regarding the constitutional process, pointing out that “the Government is not disregarding”, but “they are very interested in what happens in the dialogue, because we want a new Constitution, because we understand the problems and situations that concern Chileans”.
“The political dialogue to achieve that agreement is a dialogue carried out by the political forces, and the one who leads and lends the house is the president of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate,” he reiterated.
Now, he added that “what is important to point out is that when an agreement is reached, which we hope will be achieved, we as a government are going to co-legislate, because to carry out a new process we must reform the current Constitution, then We are going to co-legislate with that reform, so we are interested not only in taking the pulse, but also in being imbued with the logic of the agreements to translate them into the constitutional reform”.
Araucania
Regarding the conflict in the Southern Macrozone, the minister first pointed out that “it is a complex problem, with several factors, and we have to address the issue of how to approach the Mapuche communities with a lot of investment in order to increase the presence of the State in those regions”.
For example, he mentioned health solutions, in housing and agriculture. Later, he indicated that specifically today “we are in the territory generating conversations with the werkenes”.
This time, he said, the conversations “we would like to do with all the respect and understanding of the world to a culture that is different. Our accelerated and immediate times do not converse with that way of being.” Then, he explained that “first we talk with the Werkén, who takes his time, takes the messages to the Lonco, the Lonco receives and is with his community, returns to the Werkén, we have news, and finally Víctor Ramos (in charge of the Good Living plan) manages to join the Werkén. So this doesn’t happen in three days”.
“We are building a relationship based on a very great mistrust of the Mapuche people, because many times they have had unfulfilled promises (…) We would like, with the best of good faith, to reach their hearts, to achieve a dialogue with those who want dialogue and they are in a dialogue in peace”, he concluded.
