Colombia: Duque Calls Review of Tax Reform After Huge Protests

Colombian President Ivan Duque announced on Friday that he would revise a controversial tax reform bill rejected with massive protests for punishing the middle and working class in the middle of a pandemic. 

"I have given a very clear instruction to the Ministry of Finance to (...) build a new text with the Congress that gathers the consensus, and that also allows for nurturing valuable proposals" of the parties, the private sector, and the civil society, he declared in his daily television program.

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The conservative president assured that the new proposal rules out the increase of the VAT tax for services and goods and the enlargement of the taxpayers' income tax base, some of the main points of disagreement.

"This must give tranquility and must also give certainty to the citizenship," added a president who faces a massive popularity drop (-33%).

The project was presented as a way to alleviate the dire economic situation of the fourth Latin American economy, hit by the pandemic and mismanagement and which fell 6.8% in 2020 in its worst performance in half a century, as well as to pay for aid to vulnerable populations, which protesters don't believe is the real motivation.

The proposal was rejected by the opposition, unions, students, and other civil society organizations that described it as untimely and incredibly aggressive with the middle and working classes. Even the governing party and its traditional allies raised objections. The proposal went as far as adding a tax to essential items, which are most in-demand by a population in crisis.

Meanwhile, the indigenous people announced a massive mobilization if the bill was not withdrawn.

The government hoped to raise some 6.3 billion dollars between 2022 and 2031 with the reform and thus maintain its credit rating.