One of the biggest bets of the National Government to promote fiscal sustainability and guarantee that the social projects of President Gustavo Petro can be carried out, is in the National Tax and Customs Directorate and its collection capacity, a point that until now has not been achieved. It has turned out as expected but work is being done to reach the levels that the Nation needs.
The growth of more than $16 billion in revenue expectations for 2025 or the litigation and arbitration strategy that ultimately did not take place; are proof of the confidence that is placed in the tax authority, where progress is also being made in a process of payroll expansion and technological modernization, which will be the starting point for what happens in the coming months.
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The intention with this last point is that, regardless of whether new tax reforms are made or not, or what is expected with the financing law presented by the Ministry of Finance, the country will have a strong tax collection agency that closely monitors taxpayers in order to obtain the necessary resources and put an end to crimes such as tax evasion or under-registration of taxes.
Court of accounts
Considering that the country’s attention is focused on its process of staff expansion and the modernization of its systems, the Dian recently submitted a report on the status of this process, which makes clear that despite the challenges they have had to face, there has been substantial progress, mainly in the arrival of new officials through merit-based competitions.
Dian
“Merit competitions are the mechanism by which they are provided the permanent positions of the Dian. To date, these public calls made since 2020 through the National Civil Service Commission – CNSC, have allowed 5,517 appointments to be made in the administrative career,” he began by saying.
In this regard, he recalled that in the development of the government policy of primacy of merit, Decree Law 927 of 2023 also ordered the execution of annual merit competitions to progressively leverage the provision of personnel in the entity. Likewise, he said that there are already a large number of people linked to his staff.
Thanks to this, according to its report, progress is currently being made in the final stages of the 2022 Merit Contest 2497, which offered a total of 4,700 jobs, advancing the respective tiebreakers of the eligible candidates who have the same score, audiences selection of cities in conjunction with the National Civil Service Commission and induction course.
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“These are actions that must be carried out prior to issuing the administrative act of appointment during the probationary period, stages that are carried out once the lists of eligible candidates are confirmed,” they explained.
Now, regarding the specific status of the contractreported that of the 4,700 jobs advertised, 1,577 appointments have been made on a trial period, while 2,612 are in the pre-appointment stages, of which 996 are in the repetition of the selection hearing for positions by court order of protection and 71 vacancies are vacant. On the other hand, lists of eligible candidates have not been issued for 384 appointments similarly affected by court rulings.
Jairo Villabona, director of the Dian
“An external factor that has impacted the provision process is the presentation of 1,077 writs of protection that have affected the provision of 1,806 vacancies during the process, altering the planned schedule both in the issuance of lists of eligible candidates and in the times of the hearings, other stages prior to the appointments and possession of the eligible candidates,” they warned.
It is expected that, if there are no setbacks, the hiring of personnel will be completely completed next year and the plan to strengthen collection can be put into operation. However, for authorities such as the CARF, it is necessary to take steps towards a stronger guarantee that this will be done or else. The country would still have at risk the income it expects from tax payments.
