Unanimously, the Commission for Economic Development of the National Assembly accepts the report for the first debate on the draft Law on Economic Efficiency.

The Economic Development Committee of the National Assembly unanimously approved the report on the draft Law on Economic Efficiency and Employment submitted by President Daniel Noboa at noon this Sunday, December 10. This completes the first part of the processing in the committee and the document becomes known and discussed by the plenary session of the Legislative Body.

The president of the commission, Valentina Centeno, from the Alliance of National Democratic Action (ADN), voted to approve the report; Blasco Luna, Lenín Lara and Katiuska Miranda, from the Civil Revolution (RC); José Acaiturri, from the Social Christian Party (PSC); Nicole Saca, from the ruling alliance ADN; and Steven Ordóñez, Pedro Velasco and Karina Subía, from Actuemos. The proposal for the approval of the document was made by the legislator Subía.

In this first part, the commission had 26 performances in five sessions; More than 52 comments and contributions were received from members of the assembly and other public and private organizations. On the night of November 27, Noboa sent the legislature a 96-page document proposing reforms to various legal bodies.

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Since it is an urgent economic law, the Assembly must obtain the decision of the plenary session in two debates by the end of the month and submit a response to the submitted bill.

At the beginning of the session, President Centeno left the commission’s advisors Katy Hoyos, Roberto Zurit and Giovanny Bravo to explain the changes made to the text on tax issues, public-private alliances and free zones. The introduced changes are the proposals of the members of the Commission at the previous meetings and at the one held on Saturday, December 9.

After the advisers finished their presentation, Centeno generally described the main changes to the law included in this first report with the new text of the law.

He said that the tax on income from the sale of real estate has been abolished and that the free public services of public-private alliances are clear; That is, services such as education and health that are implemented through public-private alliances can never cost the user, but must be free.

That the percentage of self-deduction for large taxpayers has changed: there is no longer a fixed percentage of 3%, but a percentage regulated by the TIE (effective tax rate) according to the sector. This will be the percentage that regulates each sector, in accordance with what is published annually by the Tax Administration (SRI) in relation to the withholdings of each sector. In other words, retaining the agriculture and livestock sectors is not the same as retaining the mining and oil sectors. The percentages will vary according to the tables published by the SRI from year to year, called the average TIE.

He also said that the incentive for employing young people has been changed. There would no longer be a progressive table, but an additional deduction of a fixed percentage for each new employment, taking into account wages and salary costs. This means that an additional deduction of 50% of all costs incurred in wages and salaries, which clearly contributed to social security, is proposed. Whether it is one, two, three or a hundred verifiable new jobs, the proposal is to deduct an additional 50% on wages and salaries from that cost, which can increase to 75% in the case of public university graduates. technical institutes or public school bachelor’s degrees.

According to Centeno, this deduction will be applied between the ages of 18 and 29, and what was mentioned at the beginning is included: that in the case of contracts in construction projects or agricultural projects, there is an additional percentage of 75%. An additional deduction is included in the employment document for prisoners and their partners.

The President of the Development Commission pointed out that the percentage of goods and services that are produced in free zones and that can be sold on the national territory has changed. It was proposed, he noted, to be 30 percent, but it was reduced to 20 percent. This means that only 20% of goods and services produced in free zones can be sold on the national territory.

Furthermore, the text would abolish free zones with one activity, and only zones with multiple activities would remain. He explained that it is clear that there is no violation of labor regulations in terms of respect and compliance with the constitutional mandate that there cannot be other contracting modalities than those contained in the Labor Law and the Constitution, both in free zones and in APPS. In general, there is no regression of labor rights.

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With regard to the presented text of the report, the members of the assembly who make up the commission presented remarks and clarifications. For example, it was requested that not only those who graduated from public universities, but also private universities, as well as fiscal units, be taken into account in the deduction for new employment. It was also requested that the public sector be taken into account in the issue of free zones, and that greater emphasis be placed on constitutional principles regarding conflicts of interest.

The legislators of the Civil Revolution highlighted the environment in which they worked and the openness that existed towards dialogue and included observations from that block during this first analysis. They reminded that they have the will to support the text, but clarified that it is time for it to be in the plenary session of the Parliament in order to expand the discussion and improve the document that will finally be submitted to the state.

A ten-minute break was given to incorporate these contributions into the final text and, upon her return, Representative Centeno stated that all comments had been noted and would be considered in the appropriate debate.

At the time of the vote, everyone voted for the report to be delivered to Assembly Speaker Henry Kronfle, the legislature that must convene a plenary session within at least 48 hours for the session to hear and discuss the first report of this bill. If the call is made this afternoon, the plenary session could be set for next Tuesday afternoon.

Several members of the Development Committee clarified that, although they do not have the final text of the report, they are voting in favor because there is a will and predisposition at the table to accept everything that happened in this debate and in the next one.