The legislative allies of the Executive such as the Democratic Left and Pachakutik maintain their criticism of the final text and announce that they will not give their vote.
In the last stage of the process of the urgent Fiscal Development and Sustainability project, the government sector struggled to get the 70 votes it needed to approve its proposal, which allowed it to establish new taxes and collect around $ 1.9 billion.
For five times, the legislative board of Economic Development suspended the session until the votes were reached and the final text was approved with the adjustments that were invoked during the second debate. That report was approved with six votes: three from the ruling party plus those of the delegates of the Democratic Left and United Ecuadorian, and that of John Vinueza, of the Ecuadorian Union.
Initially, the legislative board was unable to present the final text of the project to the plenary session of the National Assembly, before 11:00, when the session was called to vote on the text, so the president of the Legislative, Guadalupe Llori, to petition of the rapporteur legislator, Francisco Jiménez (CREO), suspended the installation of the plenary session until 4:30 p.m.
To this was added the absence of the president and vice president of the commission, Daniel Noboa (EU) and Wilma Andrade (ID), in their order. Both traveled to Spain, so the table had to improvise and chose, among its members, the legislator who works with the National Agreement Bank (BAN), Diana Pesántez, to direct the session and lead the approval of the final texts of the project.
Urgent law runs out of commission authorities that analyzes the Government’s proposal
The legislator César Rohón (before the PSC) warned of the “strange coincidence” that the two authorities at the table have been absent during the critical stage of treatment of the project and that they have chosen to travel to Spain. This led to the principalization of two assembly members, who did not closely follow the process of the document, but without reasoning, they recorded their vote in favor of the Executive’s thesis.
Some texts were adjusted after the second debate, but the proposal to increase the payment of income tax (IR) for individuals who receive a salary greater than $ 2,600 per month was maintained, and it is determined that they can make a deduction of personal expenses up to $ 10,000.
The project also establishes a unique special contribution on large estates and certain companies to boost the national economy after the pandemic; the restructuring of certain taxes, to improve the sustainability of public finances; and a temporary regime applicable to undeclared assets abroad.
In the midst of the political struggle, some scenarios arose against the Executive’s proposal. The first: to approve the text proposed by the rapporteur legislator and approved with six votes by the Development Commission, but as it was conceived, there would not be the support of the Government’s legislative allies, the Democratic Left and Pachakutik; both sectors closely followed the meetings of the legislative table.
Their spokesmen warned that, despite the approval of the final text at the table, their position in the plenary session will be different, because they maintain that the tax base of the IR for individuals must be directed to people who earn a salary higher than the $ 3,500, but that adjustment possibility was not included in the commission’s report.
Alejandro Jaramillo, coordinator of the ID, confirmed that, if in this last stage of the process all the observations of the citizens are not collected, his bench will not put their fifteen votes.
What this party insists on is to establish that the income tax base is based on remunerations of $ 3,500 per month, that the inheritance tax is not eliminated and that the wealth tax is not included on properties of rurality and the agricultural sector.
If they do not collect the proposals of the orange bench, Jaramillo added, the option will be the file, and clarified that they will not support the minority report presented by the correista Union for Hope bench, which would have the support of the Christian Social bloc.
The file of the project would imply that the Executive send a new proposal again, and for this, on Monday the ID would present a document to the Government with all the observations so that the first president can urgently present something that does not affect the middle class and the productive sector. Fifteen days have passed and no minimum consensus has been reached, and it is possible to do so in the last hours.
The Pachakutik delegate at the Development table, Cristian Yucailla, abstained from voting for the final text of the project. His co-chair Mario Ruiz affirmed that the Government is seeking to pass the urgent bill through the law, and that the strategy is clear, it is committed to sabotaging it.
Ruiz said that his bench will not give the votes for a law that thinks only of friends, of panas, because the elimination of income tax is proposed because they know that they will inherit millions of dollars, as well as approve money laundering .
A little before the plenary session is installed, PK presented an urgent motion to archive the project. The idea was that this be activated if the minority report of Union for Hope (UNES) is not voted.
Meanwhile, Esteban Torres, coordinator of the PSC bench, threatened to dismiss the Legislative authorities who lend themselves to the urgent project passing through the ministry of law. “We are not going to allow there to be a game, that the sessions are suspended and the text goes through the ministry of law tomorrow (Saturday), this project that has the unanimous rejection of associations and unions.”
If there are no votes for the report of the legislative table, the law establishes that there must immediately be a motion to deny the project and only with that motion is the possibility of dealing with a minority report that has been presented.
Jiménez clarified that they are not delaying anything, but complying with the procedure, and that there is always a risk that it will be filed as well as that the proposal is approved, but the most important thing is that the attitude of the Government and the legislative commission has been to process seriously the observations presented.
That each political sector and each legislator must make a decision based on their own criteria, and considered that Pachakutik’s position is not irreversible.
Its co-chairman Juan Fernando Flores said that the Assembly has until midnight Saturday to approve the project, and that they are always open to a dialogue that allows a consensual vote. (I)
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