The President of the Committee for Economic Development, Valentina Centeno, confirmed that she does not rule out the possibility of lowering the VAT by one point, that is, from 15 percent to 14 percent, in the third urgent economic law that aims to finance the war against drug-criminal groups. He mentioned it in an interview for Teleamazonas this Friday, January 26.

The report for the first hearing is scheduled for this Saturday. And in the treatment for the second debate, this new flexibility of the Government would be proposed. Centeno also spoke about the possibility of easing the duration of this tax.

In any case, she commented that there was no lack of openness on the Government’s bench to introduce several proposals from individual sectors. He said that out of ten proposals that were under discussion, which came from the legislative and executive powers, eight were accepted, but only three were put on paper, since the other five must come from the executive power.

Among the accepted proposals is a tax on banks and companies, an increase in ISD, as well as the optimization of fuel subsidies, and even the reprofiling of internal and external debt.

In any case, faced with a possible scenario where the proposal to increase VAT is not approved, he said it would be tantamount to going backwards and giving in to the mafia, which is not acceptable. He also emphasized that this tax is not regressive (it affects those who have the least), since basic products, education, healthcare, food, rent, among others, do not have VAT.

Centeno also said that they do not agree with the collection of wealth tax because it will affect those who can create jobs. He also indicated that he does not see the law coming through the Ministry of Law.

Meanwhile, the Correismo and Social Christian groups oppose the Government’s proposals.