Former Finance Minister Rudolf Hommes spoke, in an interview for EL TIEMPO, about current economic concerns in the country. Likewise, the tax reform proposed by the government of Gustavo Petro.
(Read: Tax: how much would each pensioner have to pay according to their allowance?).
For him, the tax bill can interfere with the country’s economic growth. Hommes considers that the way in which they are looking for the collection ‘does a lot of damage’.
“It is good to find a way for all of us to pay taxes, especially the rich, but the way they are proposing it does a lot of damage, because it is raising the tax on dividends without lowering the tax rate on companies. That will have effects on investment. They did not want to take that into account. They prefer to collect, right? And there can be many errors“, he assured.
He also criticized the size of the reform: “The bad thing is that you need the money and then you have to choose between two evils,” he said.
(See: Tax: the changes in the reform explained by the Minhacienda).
The doubt of the former minister has as one of the bases that the country requires resources to finance social programs such as the minimum payment to older peoples that they have not reached a pension.
For Hommes, one of Petro’s alternatives is to reach agreements with all the economic and political sectors as a key to carrying out their government initiatives. However, “with the speeches that the President is giving, it does not seem to indicate that he has that intention,” he assured.
The former minister also considers that it is recessionary to propose the suspension of investment in oil and coal. For him it is key that the President seek consensus,
“You have to sit him down with people who have other ideas of how to achieve what he wants. For example, we are going to do the agrarian reform, but we have to be very careful…” he said.
(Keep reading: Tax evasion: one of the challenges of tax reform).
(Read the complete interview of Rudolf Hommes with María Isabel Rueda here: ‘Ocampo has been given an impossible task’: Rudolf Hommes).
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