On August 7th, the National Assembly concluded the debate over the Executive Branch’s partial veto  on the bill to productive development. The Assembly accepted most of the President’s objections that included restoring the power of the Monetary and Financial Policy and Regulation Board to review fees and charges for financial services. It was also established that the benefit of refunding the foreign currencies remittance tax (ISD) on imported inputs will not be exclusive to those that cannot be purchased in the country. The General Secretariat of the Assembly will have 48 hours to send the bill to the Official Register for its enactment.

The debate lasted for more than seven hours, and 22 legislators participated. The voting process took place in blocks. The first block recommended accepting the changes in most of the objections raised by the Executive branch. In this block the changes to Article 47 that sought to restore the power to set fees for financial services to the Monetary and Financial Policy and Regulation Board were incorporated. This block was passed with the support of all the benches.

The second block recommended accepting the Executive’s objections in terms of macro-fiscal rules that establish a fiscal plan and fiscal targets to achieve the country’s zero deficit and also provides mechanisms for the government to contract more debt. Although these objections were not supported by the majority of the assembly members, they will still be part of the law. In order for it not to be so, it was necessary to pass the original bill of the Assembly with two thirds of those present, something that did not happen. Thus, the Executive’s branch opinion won.

Finally, the third block had six articles in which the Committee on Economic Development recommended ratifying the bill passed by the Assembly. Among them was the exclusive benefit of the tax refund benefit on the currencies remittance tax (ISD) for imported products that could not be purchased in the country. This recommendation did not had the necessary support.