President Gustavo Petro has been the first president of Colombians for a month. In his first 30 days at the head of the countryhis agenda has been marked especially by the start of the tax reform process, but the talks with the mining-energy sector and his transition agenda, his promises in relation to agriculture and other announcements have also stood out.
(Read: Government will seek to add $11 billion pesos to the General Budget).
In economic terms, from his second day in the Casa de Nariño, Petro began to move his chips, with the filing of the tax reform project, with which he seeks raise $25 billion by 2023.
This is especially concentrated on an income tax for natural persons with income greater than $10 million per monththe elimination of exemptions, and taxes for extractive industries.
This has also put this sector at the center of discussions. The Government has been clear in its strategy of ‘decarbonisation’ of the economy and the president proposed a shift in the mineral exploration model in the country.
Tax reform
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“Mining exploration and its profile should have another mining objective, instead of looking for coal or oil. See if there is lithium, more copper, cobalt, coltan, manganese. If there are none, other decisions must be made. Mining exploration should change your mind“, said.
To this end, the president has suggested in recent weeks to take advantage of international tourism to replace to some extent the rents of this sector, although not in its entirety.
Petro has also proposed in recent weeks reform the mining codeand that the sector, in association with Ecopetrol, carry out a mission that seeks to manufacture the first large wind generation turbine in Colombia.
Agriculture is another of the main axes of the president’s agenda. From the head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Cecilia López, has spoken that it will promote the use of unproductive land, especially those associated with those seized from drug trafficking, taking advantage of the multipurpose cadastre and placing special emphasis on land titling.
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Land management has been another of the discussions of the president’s first month in power because they have been presented invasions of private land in Cauca, Valle del Cauca, Huila and César. The government has rejected these acts and has asked that the spaces be vacated.
On the international and trade issue, the agenda of the president has turned to Venezuela. One of the first political moves was the visit of Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva to the neighboring country, and the appointment of an ambassador: Armando Benedetti.
In addition, Petro called for electrical and energy integration of South America in the Andean Community of Nations (CAN).
(Also: Petro will quote the energy sector to evaluate price increases).
In this first month, the Government confirmed that the labor reform will not arrive until 2023, and Petro also spoke of the importance of generating more production, for which he asked banks to help with financing and easy access to credit.
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