Fernando Rodriguez, Deputy Minister of Revenue and Finance Ministry, does not support the tax of ¢20 per every interbank transfer of ¢100,000 included in the Regional Development Bill.
The initiative aims to establish a fund to benefit underprivileged areas. However, despite the good intentions of the proposal, Rodríguez disagrees for several reasons. One of them is that electronic transfers help to fight against tax evasions and money laundering.
In addition, according to the BCR, the use of cash has a cost of about $ 500 million a year. Therefore, the Minister thinks the government should focus on taxing cash, not electronic transfers.
For the economist and advisor to the Costa Rican Banking Association, Ronulfo Jimenez, the tax is poorly designed because it has a cascading impact on production costs and consumer prices.