Deputy Jesús Faría denies opinion matrix on IGTF

This Wednesday, the president of the Permanent Commission of Economy, Finance and National Development, deputy Jesús Faría, denied the opinion matrices that seek to stop the course of stabilization and growth of the Venezuelan economy. “It is a lie that everyone has to pay the tax,” he stressed.

The parliamentarian questioned that very negative expectations are planted in the population about the Tax on Large Financial Transactions (IGTF), even more so when they make Venezuelans believe that the growth of the economy is going to be financed with their scarce resources.

He added that they are trying to put a stop to the positive trend and dynamics that the national economy has been registering in the last 18 months. He pointed out that the IGTF has a dual purpose: to ensure that the national currency returns to its place and to establish the principle of tax justice.

He added that the IGTF will be canceled by those who make transfers in large commercial establishments and financial institutions that are pre-established by the Integrated National Service of Customs and Tax Administration (Seniat), since they are large tax collectors. “On the other hand, everything that is popular commerce, small businesses and commercial establishments, are exempt from this payment,” he stressed.

The parliamentarian stressed that the cancellation of the 3% tax on operations with dollars is not established, nor contemplated; neither in the remittances of money that Venezuelan families obtain. But whoever cancels that tax, as a consumer, would be because they want it, “because the operation that should be carried out to avoid paying it is to change the dollars to bolivars prior to the purchase to be made.”

He added that if the person cancels in bolivars, he would be exempt from the tax, being then a free exchange system that can be carried out anywhere. He expressed that there is an even simpler modality, which is through debit cards backed by deposits in dollars, whose payment is in bolivars. With this type of card, the IGTF is not canceled either, he pointed out.

Faría ruled that there are sectors of Venezuelan society that do not want to cancel the IGTF because they are the ones that carry out large and medium-sized financial operations. “They are the ones that carry out operations in dollars in large magnitudes and, of course, they do not want to make that contribution. Which is why they oppose this type of tax”, concluded Faría.