With five votes in favor and four against, the legislators of the Special Commission of Fiscal Reform decided to exonerate private education from paying taxes, opposing the government’s proposal on the matter.
The motion was presented by Congressman José María Villalta, who in addition to his vote, had the support of Eduardo Cruickshank and Melvin Núñez from National Restoration, Pedro Muñoz from the Christian Social Unity Party (PUSC), and Wálter Muñoz from National Integration Party (PIN).
Those against the motion were Welmer Ramos from the ruling party, as well as the liberationists Yorleni León, Silvia Hernández, and Gustavo Viales.
On this issue, Núñez gave the example of Jacó, where most of the schools are private because, according to him, the Ministry of Public Education (MEP) does not make the necessary efforts to increase quotas and schools.
The tax proposed by the Government for private education was 2% of the added value.
After this vote, the congressmen began discussion a motion by Villalta that also sought to exonerate drugs, but it was rejected.
Ramos raised his voice to urge his colleagues to set aside the exemptions, otherwise the collection goals would go down. However, Villalta argued they have made proposals to the government to counteract this loss in income, although without success.
On Wednesday, the congressmen managed to exonerate the basic basket, which would imply about 60 billion colones less in the plans of the government for taxes.
The Executive Branch seeks to raise 1.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with these new taxes, in order to face the fiscal deficit that reached 6.2% of GDP in 2017.