Producers and transporters who are members of four unions and the Un Solo Uruguay movement accused the mayor of Paysandú, Nicolás Olivera, of devising a new “covert, unconsulted, arbitrary and improvised” tax.alluding to the intention of that departmental government to implement what they define as “a price for the use of rural roads”which if materialized would mean “tax all agricultural production through transportation”.
After expressing that being the main affected, they have not been able to have access to the original document with the proposalin relation to an expression of the intendant (“he who breaks pays”) They pointed out that “it is solved with a punitive system of objective, systematic and permanent control”.
The statement, sent to The Observer on the night of this Tuesday 9, it was signed by the Association of Professional Carriers of Paysandú; the Rural Association of Paysandú; the Integremial of Professional Freight Transport, the Association of Road Carriers of Uruguay and Un Solo Uruguay.
These groups understand that “what is proposed by the departmental government is that whoever uses it pays, and this is an expression of doubtful acceptance, since we taxpayers contribute enough so that additional prices are proposed for the use“.
In this context, several questions arise:
- What is done with the OPP contributions for rural roads in the department of Paysandú?
- How much has been executed and how much remains to be executed?
- How much of those resources are lost by not running on time?
- What is the destination of the Departmental Rural Contribution contributions?
- What destination has the contributions of 1% to the livestock that contribute all the cattle of the department?
- What is the destination of the collection of vehicle license plates provided by transport and all agricultural producers?
“We understand that enough is already collected and that a look inside departmental public spending is needed to meet its obligations”is indicated after that sequence of questions.
For those entities, “This initiative has a ruthless collection effort, it is striking that in a national government where the guideline is not to impose more taxes, this administration wants to venture into this type of initiative”.
Finally, it is reported that there was a meeting in which “participated legislators from all political parties who represent the department in the Legislative Branch, who they promised to review the budget article that enables this hidden taxbecause of the institutional mechanisms that we citizens have through our representatives to avoid these abuses”.
Last week, in the Tribune space of the Agro supplement of The Observeran article related to this situation was published, written by Federico Holzmann, spokesperson for Un Solo Uruguay:
