COLOMBIA

On June 10, the Minister of Finance, José Manuel Restrepo, announced that the government will push forward the new tax reform after June, following the parliamentary recess. The Ministry of Finance will continue to seek consensus in order to move forward with a project that “does not affect the middle class”.

Restrepo reiterated that the new reform will not have structural changes in income, VAT and pensions. In addition, the minister said that the project seeks to raise some 14 trillion pesos, while the previous reform contributed more than 20 trillion pesos to the nation’s coffers. He also announced that they will visit at least seven regions of the country to listen to proposals and reach consensus on the new reform, which will be called “Sustainable Social Investment”.

The minister will be accompanied by a group of young people, trade union leaders and congressmen. The workshops will begin on June 17 in Barranquilla and will last until the first week of July. “Achieving this awareness of moving forward with a social investment project, we will reach agreements that will allow us in the coming weeks to present to Congress an initiative that can be discussed,” he said.