The Committee for Economic Development of the National Assembly, chaired by Prime Minister Valentina Centeno, on December 4 of this year began the analysis of the urgent economic project of economic efficiency and employment proposed by the executive power, whose deadline for processing at the plenary session expires next year. December 27.

On the first day of the analysis, the legislators received the relevant Ministries of the Economy and the Tax Administration, who explained the scope of the Government’s proposal, presented figures on the economic situation in which they found the country, and spoke about the need to approve the bill that includes tax incentives, job creation and investment attraction.

Tax credits for youth employment are not seen as an incentive that has a real effect on employment

According to the President of the Commission for Economic Development, Valentina Centeno (ADN)the analysis of the urgent project began with great expectations, because the law will bring many benefits to Ecuadorians, will create new jobs and attract foreign investment.

He announced that it will be a busy working week at the committee level, as all officials related to the economic field will appear to explain the content of the project, as well as the production sectors, and it is expected that this first analysis will end on Saturday, and the report for the first discussion it will be ready on Monday, December 11, and the plenary session will be able to see it the next day.

He said that they hope to come up with a sufficiently attractive project for employment, especially for the employment of young people, which the Government wants to focus on, because seven out of ten young people do not have stable employment. situation, which is why he hopes to create incentives and special regimes such as the creation of free zones.

He warned that at the level of the parliamentary benches, the attitude towards the urgent project is mostly positive, although he said that there are some observations and issues that will be refined, such as the percentages and the progressive table of income tax reduction for the employment of young people. ; “We will always be flexible and open to socialize them; “They are very happy about this change that the free zones have, which does not allow or allow privatizations, which is an important issue for us to clarify and give peace to the Ecuadorians,” emphasized the representative of the Government Bloc.

Delegate of the Civil Revolution Movement, Blasco Luna, He pointed out that what concerns youth employment incentives will have the support of his bloc because it is important for the country, although the commission will discuss what will happen to people over 29 years old, because it would be violating their rights.

There are issues, he added, that need to be discussed in depth, such as tax forgiveness for government sectors, because he believes that one cannot be a judge and a party, because it is known that the Nobis group owes 88 million dollars, and they would hardly have to pay with the tax forgiveness 33 million dollars.

So, he said, the one who proposes the project, President Daniel Noboa, who is part of that business group, cannot be both a judge and a party. In addition, he pointed out, it should be borne in mind that if they were not beneficiaries of the tax amnesty in 2018, fines and surcharges can no longer be forgiven, because the culture “I do what I want and at some point it will be forgiven” would be generated. assembly.”

He announced that the reform may include exceptions such as those who have already received remission of fines and surcharges should no longer receive this compensation. Likewise, for the construction sector, the Executive VAT refund proposal would only benefit large companies that only deal with construction, why not think about the small entrepreneur who builds his home, to boost the economy.

Regarding the free zones, legislator Blasco Luna said that it is necessary to talk about making it transparent which sectors will benefit. For example, he said that opening the border to the dairy sector to import dairy products would stop the country’s internal production from killing it.

Pedro Velasco, member of the committee for economic development of the Avanza party, He stated that the process of this project is short, and part of it, five days, should be devoted to socializing with the actors and drafters.

He emphasized that the project has “a lot” of advantages because it was originally intended to create new jobs, to charge more taxes and more taxes to the employer and the business sector, but today it is the other way around, they want to create new jobs through incentives. such as the reduction of income tax, the return of VAT and the creation of duty-free zones for the import of inputs, which is positive.

The strongest thing in all of this, he added, is that if this goal of job creation is achieved, it would fulfill not only the government plan of the President of the Republic, but also the needs of all Ecuadorians.

Velasco clarified that we are talking about a table and a scale for incentives, because if twelve net jobs are created, there will be a 20% discount on income tax, and if 25 net jobs are created, it is already a 30% discount; and if it creates more than 50 jobs, the incentives grow progressively.

On the other hand, in free zones, when someone intends to bring inputs, raw materials from abroad into the free zone, they will be exempt from customs duty.

He said that there will be objections from some sectors and that they will be listened to, and that this is the goal of the committee because the presence of the business and industrial sectors, and the presence of the construction and real estate sectors is expected. It is also expected that all VAT will be returned to those real estate projects that generate business.