Among the proposals of the 2023 – 2026 National Development Plan project that have caused the most controversy are the creation of the Universal Income Registry (RUI) and the Citizen Income Program.
These imply that the National Planning Department (DNP) and the Department of Social Prosperity (DPS) have information about the income of Colombians.
The Plan states that the RUI aims to determine the targeting of subsidies, programmes, policy, plans, projects and services of the central government’s social offer (Article 55).
The former director of the Directorate of National Taxes and Customs (Dian), Lisandro Junco, said that “the creation of the Citizen Income Program and the Universal Income Registry, which will allow the DNP to have all the income of Colombians and a basic declaration to do of the income tax, are two scenarios that raise the alarm that the statutory tax reserve may be increased ”.
However, Henry Amorocho, professor of public finance at the Universidad del Rosario, said the RUI is very necessary for the DNP. “The country is experiencing an abnormal situation, and that is that in the databases, for example Sisbén, there are casters, that is, people who are not vulnerable, among others, who have a high income, receive subsidies from the state,” said the expert in dialogue with EL HERALDO.
He added that the initiative is pursuing a unification of information and is trying to find tools that encompass this account. “This will serve to try to refine the information and to prevent high-income people from getting into those databases through this volatile route.”
adjust taxes
Lisandro Junco also confirmed that in the PND he is proposing adjustments and new taxes such as property taxes, capital gains and streaming.
“At the end of 2022, the finance minister, José Antonio Ocampo, noted that the only tax reform he would implement was the territorial one, and what we see here is that they take advantage of the National Development Plan law to change the property tax with a surcharge, also to take measures on the capital gains tax, and another case that would be a new tax is that of streaming platforms,” Amorocho explains.
will have difficulties
According to the expert, these tax annotations could pose problems at the time of the approval of the PND in the Congress of the Republic.
“The contents of the PND law may contain only those authorized by Article 150, number 3 of the political constitution for the adoption of the national development plan, but nevertheless we are engaged in financing the state, and that already corresponds with a different legislative function with a different procedure. The congressmen will certainly debate and the majority will not approve this measure,” emphasized the professor of the Universidad del Rosario.
Source: El heraldo
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
