President Gustavo Petro has just concluded a meeting with the speakers of the tax reform in the Casa de Nariño.
After the meeting, the head of state gave a statement about what is coming for this project that, according to the National Government, is important for there to be more equality in Colombia. And he announced that the pension tax was dropped.
“We have modified two aspects of what has been debated so far in the third joint commissions of the Congress of the Republic, both the Senate and the Chamber. One aspect: we are not going to present a tax on pressures. Second aspect: we modified the taxation of the hydrocarbon sector that works with public assets owned by the Nation”, affirmed the Head of State from the House of Nariño.
Regarding the last aspect, Petro explained that it is maintained that the royalties of the entire mining sector that pays royalties, are not deductible from the income tax “for a basic and fundamental criterion: the subsoil assets are property of the Nation, they are public property , of the Colombian people (…). The Nation has the right to some royalties.”
“The surtax to the oil and coal sector will depend on the international price of oil and coal,” Petro added.
According to the President, the final approval of the proposal will begin next week and he hopes that the week of November 7 will begin the debates on the project in the plenary sessions of the Senate and Chamber.
“The tax reform as such, its central philosophy, consists of two aspects: one, to increase the country’s ability to pass through, its ability to pay its international commitments, which have unfortunately grown very high in recent years. And two, to increase social justice in Colombia. Therefore, the taxes that have been modified here have to do with the higher tax layers of Colombian society and do not affect the majority of Colombians,” said the president.
He added that social justice and ability to pay are central issues for the economic and social situation in the country at this time.
“These are the two measures that have been taken, the paper will be finished on Tuesday, Wednesday, and we will have the last debate.” And he ruled that the collection will be around 20 billion pesos.
In recent days, the Liberal, Conservative and ‘U’ parties, which are allies of the Government in Congress, have expressed concerns about some points of the reform.
In fact, former president Cesar Gaviria, head of the Liberal Party, has said that he “would not vote” for the project and has asked for at least 13 billion to be collected and not 21 as the government intends.
Even on Tuesday afternoon, the liberal caucus meets at the Hotel de La Opera, in the center of Bogotá, to analyze some of its positions regarding the projects promoted by the Executive.
