00:00And the Colombian government introduced a new financing law aimed at covering the current fiscal deficit.
00:07But what does this entail? Our correspondent Hernando Bar with the details.
00:14In a national speech, President Gustavo Petro argued the relevance of the new financing law submitted to the Congress of the Republic for discussion and processing.
00:23He pointed out which sectors will be the ones to be taxed and gave the reasons for financing the draft of the general budget of the nation for 2026.
00:30For an approximate value of $140 billion.
00:35So here are some rich people who do not know what to do with their money.
00:45They take the time, they take the spectator, to say that the tax reform is terrible, that now it is to individuals, well,
00:53it is to individuals, but those who take the money to tax havens, not to the poor worker.
01:00The bankers' secretary pays more taxes than the banker and that cannot be like that.
01:08In turn, the opposition sectors reject the proposal, and have already announced their rejection before it reaches the economic commissions of the legislature.
01:18For individuals, they raise the rate up to 41 percent, two-thirds of their salary.
01:27If they earn a certain amount upwards, they go into the pockets of the state, financial institutions and insurance companies.
01:33Income tax, 50 percent plus local taxes, that is almost expropriating the savings of Colombians, dividends for non-residents and foreign branches 30 percent.
01:46This kills foreign investment, and with it the generation of employment, are some of the pearls of a tax reform that will not pass through the economic commissions of the Congress.
01:59The government has been emphatic in ratifying that this financing law does not touch the products of the family basket.
02:12Its implementation will be progressive, and is aimed at individuals earning higher incomes, and will implement a mechanism in favor of companies so as not to affect the country's economic growth.
02:21We'll seek better mechanisms to control tax evasion.
02:23He also pointed out that the sectors that oppose this law use corporate lobbying to promote a legislative blockade with their allies.
02:36How many of you households and workers, people of the common street, as they say, are owners of a hydrocarbons company?
02:46Hydrocarbon owners who have their pockets full and are capable of bursting a congressman's pocket to support them at this time.
02:53That is to say, that it is fulfilled in the Congress of the Republic so that taxes are not imposed to those sectors that are the most powerful in the country, so that this is a project for the super-rich.
03:03According to the representatives of the executive branch, the country is dragging a fiscal gap of debts left by the previous government and assumed by the current one, totaling more than $6,550 million, which is within the state's payment obligations, in addition to the responsibility of guaranteeing the social programs assumed by the current government.
03:25The law has already been submitted to the Colombian Congress for processing.
03:28For the discussion, Hernán Dario Tobar, Gaitán Telesur, Bogotá, Colombia.
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