The Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, ruled out that the Government of President Gabriel Boric seeks to advance the idea of establishing a forest royalty after controlling the situation of the forest fires that plague the south-central zone of the country.
In this sense, Tohá indicated that “first of all I would like to emphasize something that citizens already know. The Government has a clear tax agenda displayed in Parliament and expressed in bills. This agenda is coordinated by the Ministry of Finance but represents the entire government, founded on studies”.
“In this agenda, a royalty to the forestry industry is not contemplated, because it does not comply with the characteristics of those activities that generate royalty. It is not a non-renewable natural resource owned by the State,” added the head of the Interior.
However, he pointed out that even though it is not on the Executive’s agenda, “this does not mean that these issues cannot be discussed and put on the table as the Minister of Agriculture did, but as that debate progresses it will have to do with with approaches that are proposed for future administrations, because in the current tax agenda it is already presented and under discussion”.
