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First modification:
The Colombian Chamber and Senate approved this Thursday the government’s tax reform, which according to President Gustavo Petro, seeks “greater social justice” in the country.
After approval in the House of Representatives with several modifications, the project will now go to conciliation and then to presidential sanction to become law. “The country gains from the resources obtained here for the government’s social programs, which can now be financed in an important way,” Finance Minister José Antonio Ocampo told reporters.
According to Ocampo “it is the most progressive reform in the history” of the country and said that the sectors that will pay the most taxes are those with the highest income. The Petro Government seeks to raise 20 billion pesos next year, about 4,000 million dollars.
In the Chamber, 125 representatives voted yes, against 20 who said no to the controversial reform. The debates eliminated an article that sought to tax churches or withdraw the one that sought to include bread among the ultra-processed foods subject to taxation.
The reform is based on a higher collection of taxes for natural persons, the reduction of tax benefits for companies, taxation of sugary drinks, the export of oil, coal and gold when they exceed a certain ceiling, and the fight against tax avoidance. and evasion.
The main changes of the initiative is that high pensions will no longer be taxed and that the surtax on oil and coal will be applied based on international hydrocarbon prices.
With this reform, free zones must contribute 20% of the tax on the value they export, and another 35% when their products are sold in the Colombian market.
The tax on higher pensions, considered by some sectors as unconstitutional as they consider it an acquired right and not a source of income, was one of the most controversial points of the reform and was also eliminated by both chambers.
“The tax reform project approved in the Senate will generate poverty, unemployment and less investment in a global recession, while impoverishing the middle class, hitting the lowest-income households and introducing an attack on the hydrocarbon sector” , detailed the uribista party in a statement.
with EFE
