The legislative bloc of Unidad Social Cristiana (PUSC) and the government signed an agreement to approve a bill that would strenghthen the fight against fiscal fraud, which currently is being discussed in the Financial Affairs Commission.
The agreement was sealed after several meetings between the social-Christian representatives with officers from the Finance Ministry, Presidency Ministry and Costa Rican Institute on Drugs (ICD for its acronym in Spanish).
Boths sides agreed that the bill would include a registry of stockholders and final beneficiaries of anonymous corporations, to which would only have access the tax agency and the ICD.
Setting up this data base was the main hurdle that prevented the bill to go forward faster.
To protect stockholders from leaking of information, the authorities would create a process were stockholders can report suspected breaches of privacy. A judge would investigate and could impose sanctions if it is determined that privacy had been breached.
With the changes, the tax agency would have unrestricted access to the data base, however, it must still let stockholder know that their data is being reviewed. On the contrary, the ICD wouldn’t notify of data inquiries to people suspected of being involved in drug trafficking.
Source: La Nación.