Colombia Update: Duque to Negotiate New Tax Bill

Massive protests forced Colombia's President Ivan Duque to back down on his tax-reform bill, considered regressionist by critics. Meanwhile latest reports on police repression of demonstrations account for 15 people killed and 208 wounded, 18 of them with ocular traumas. Over 500 arrests were also reported.

RELATED:

Colombia's Duque Backs Down on Tax-Reform Bill After Massive Strike

“I am asking Congress to withdraw the law proposed by the finance ministry and urgently process a new law that is the fruit of consensus, in order to avoid financial uncertainty,” Duque said in a video.

 

Opponents of Duque celebrated the move as a popular victory.

 

“It is the youth, social organizations and mobilized citizens who have seen deaths and defeated the government,” leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda said on Twitter. “May the government not present the same reform with make-up. The citizens won’t accept tricks.”

 

The tax reform intended to raise over 6.5 billion dollars, to clean up the country's growing fiscal deficit, worsened by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Trade unions called for a national strike to fight the bill, for imposing new taxes on low and middle-income workers.

There is consensus on the need for temporary taxes on businesses and dividends, an increase in income tax for the wealthiest and deepened state austerity measures, Duque said.