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Colombia: Duque backs down

2021-05-03T23:17:46.553Z


Popular mobilizations force the president to park his tax reform. But to think that this has achieved a triumph is to be wrong outright. The problems that the project intended to alleviate are still there


The President of Colombia, Iván Duque.LUISA GONZALEZ / Reuters

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  • Duque gives in to protests and withdraws Colombia's tax reform

The decision of the president of Colombia, Iván Duque, to withdraw the tax reform after the strong protests in recent days shows a basic problem of national coexistence: the lack of political consensus to face the pandemic. Nobody is aware that a law that aimed to increase tax collection, no matter how necessary it was to alleviate the damage caused by the coronavirus to the treasury, was by definition unpopular. Getting it done required a huge didactic effort, high negotiating skills and hitting the right moment. It has not been the case. In a country ravaged by the pandemic, there was hardly any consensus, the chosen calendar was appalling and the response to the first mobilizations, disproportionate. Withdrawal, therefore, is still a reasonable measure.But to think that this has achieved a triumph is to be wrong outright. The problems that the reform sought to alleviate are still there and will only increase if measures are not taken.

Colombia, one of the most unequal countries on the continent, is urged by a law that helps improve income distribution and that activates the recovery of an economy that contracted 6.8% last year and has seen its disproportionate increase. fiscal deficit. In this sense, the attempt to improve VAT collection, currently rampant, and above all, its compensation through large cash transfers to households with fewer resources, a line that would benefit 40% of the population, was not without logic. . Obviously, a project of this magnitude had significant social obstacles, including its impact on the middle class.

If there had been a prior consensus, these difficulties would have been the basis of the discussion. But in the absence of this, everything fell apart. The government took too long to complete the reform, and its hesitations increased unease and opportunism in an environment engulfed by pre-electoral anxieties. There was not even peace in the ranks of the Government party, as demonstrated by the fact that Duque received a public slap on the wrist from the leader of his formation and mentor, former President Álvaro Uribe.

In this failure, the terrible situation of the pandemic has been as decisive as the atomized political context and the edges of the reform. The project was presented when vaccination was lamentably delayed and infections and deaths had skyrocketed. Defending the law before a fed up, crushed and impoverished population was a high-risk gamble. An inordinate police response and recourse to militarization buried their last chances of survival. Withdrawing the reform has served to calm the waters. But the economic question remains. Seeking a consensual and realistic response to the deterioration of public finances should be a priority objective of the political class. Postponing it will only bring more pain for Colombia.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-05-03

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