Nogui Acosta Jaén, Designated Minister of Finance (CRH)
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(CRHoy.com).-The Minister of Finance, Nogui Acosta ruled out that the Government will use $200 million that are negotiated with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) to compensate the fiscal impact that would cause a reduction in fuels, as a result of applying a change to the single tax on gasoline.
“We cannot mix an income with a credit, with income is the collection of taxes that people have to pay, a credit is an indebtedness that I have to pay, so there is no solution for the State in that proposal”, affirmed the minister this Tuesday after leaving a hearing in the Treasury Commission of Congress.
The proposal to use the resources of this eventual credit comes from the benches of the National Liberation Party (PLN) and the Christian Social Unity Party (PUSC)who insist that in order to give the pocket a break, a reduction in the single fuel tax be applied.
The Verdiblancos continue with the idea of applying a discount of ¢100 per liter of gasoline. According to data provided by the previous Minister of Finance, Elian Villegas, doing so would imply a lack of public resources of about ¢285 billion colones per year.
In the case of the Social Christians, they propose that the reduction be ¢30 per liter, which they believe would make it more fiscally feasible, since it would generate an impact on public resources of ¢162 billion per year.
Both factions propose to use surpluses from public institutions to compensate for the blow and also from the profits of public companies.
Acosta recalled that the income from fuels, the State, uses them to distribute in different ways, between those who pay taxes and those who do not have those possibilities, in matters of health, education and pensions.
“Each colon that you remove from that income has to be subtracted from someone, the difficulty is to identify Who are we going to take it from? because those resources not only go to the Treasury, but also to Conavi, to the municipalities, to the Red Cross, it would be necessary to define who we are going to take that money from, ”emphasized the hierarch.
The minister said that it should be the opposition deputies who point out a clear route of how they would compensate for those shortfalls.
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