Pachakutik and the ID maintain rapprochement with the Executive on tax reform

The national government advances in the dialogues with the political sectors of the National Assembly. For this October 26, the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, plans to meet with the members of the Democratic Left (ID) bench at 18:00, before submitting the urgent bill on tax reform to Parliament.

These political approaches with the ID and the Pachakutik movement will allow, according to the Government, to achieve political support in votes within the Assembly regarding the tax, labor and investment reform, after the first setback that the regime obtained when it remitted in Last September the Opportunity Creation project, but that the Legislative Administration Council (CAL) did not qualify because it was not a single matter.

With the other political sectors that act in the legislature, such as the Union for Hope bench (UNES) and the Christian Social Party (PSC), no meeting with the Executive has yet been confirmed.

What the Union for Hope (UNES) bench expects is that the Executive has accepted the suggestions and is in tune with the needs of the citizens, said Ronny Aleaga, since at the discretion of this legislator with the signing of Executive Decree 231 what The Government did is to mock the previous agreements with the social sectors, because the freezing of fuel prices was announced, but previously it issued a package. The freeze should have occurred with the price in force at the time of the announcement, Aleaga replied.

With decrees 230 and 231, Guillermo Lasso made the new fuel prices viable and suspended the gradual increase

The coordinator of the social-Christian bloc, Esteban Torres, revealed that he informally held a conversation with the coordinator of the ruling party, Juan Fernando Flores, in which he told him that a political rapprochement is being sought with the PSC and then a meeting of the bench with the Government, but the invitation to the entire bloc was never made official.

He commented that if the invitation to dialogue is given, the PSC will attend whenever this dialogue is public and hopefully in the National Assembly itself, but so far they have not received a single invitation. Torres Cobo denied that what the PSC wants are posts, as has been pointed out in some media.

According to the coordinator of the National Agreement Bank (BAN), Juan Fernando Flores, both the Democratic Left and Pachakutik know the technical reports of the Tax Law that will be delivered until Wednesday in the National Assembly.

That the Executive is waiting for what the two political sectors allied to the Government can contribute and determine what elements can be improved in the reform.

He stated that the Government has made a call for dialogue, for this reason the leadership and several legislators of the Pachakutik movement attended, and that it is the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) and different organizations who have rather spoken of applying indigenous justice to those who today they believe in dialogue.

Flores explained that there are several issues that will be modified in the new tax reform project, in which the principle persists that those who obtained the most during the COVID-19 pandemic are the ones who will have to contribute much more.

Regarding the tax contribution of citizens, added the coordinator of the official bench, the table was revised and reduced so that there is no direct impact on Ecuadorian society and that guarantees that those who have to pay taxes are the companies that benefited during the process of the pandemic.

Alejandro Jaramillo, coordinator of ID, confirmed that this Tuesday, October 26, his bench will hold a meeting with the president, in which he will request the repeal of the three executive decrees that allowed the setting of fuel prices through gangs, but they will also ask for the current decree 231 to be reviewed, which indicates that later the cost or prices of fuels can be verified, when the idea is to freeze the cost until before the issuance of the last decree.

He stated that the National Assembly has to work hand in hand with the Executive, since it is the only way to reach a minimum consensus, and that is how it has to work for the country.

In the tax reform, he highlighted that the ID coincides with the Executive’s announcement that those who earn the most have to pay, but that in the Executive’s initial proposal to apply a tax to people who earn more than $ 2,000 a month, the Democratic Left states that this tax base should rise for those who earn $ 3,500 per month. Although Jaramillo said that this issue can be analyzed.

Assemblyman Ricardo Vanegas, of the Pachakutik movement, clarified that in the meeting with the Government held last Wednesday they did not reach any understanding or agreement, the only thing that was asked of the President of the Republic is the freezing of fuel prices to October from last year. “I think that colleague (Leonidas) Iza is not properly informed of the conversation that took place,” he stressed. (I)