On Tuesday afternoon, Rocío Aguilar recommended legislators in the Committee on Finance Affairs to establish a review of the tax exemptions every five years as an obligation of the Ministry of Finance.
Aguilar appealed to the legislators to refer to the draft law on the exemption regimes that are processed under file 19.531 and that, among other aspects, seeks to regulate the procedure for granting, releasing, liquidating, transferring, and controlling the use and destination of the exemptions that are under the tutelage of the General Directorate of Finance.
The plan also establishes a sanctioning regime applicable to non-compliance with the regulations governing the exemptions.
According to Aguilar, it is necessary that there be a periodic review of the issue, since there are exonerations that date back to the 70s, without being verified whether they currently have any benefit.
According to the calculations of the Treasury, there are at least 440 laws created between 1962 and the decade of the seventies that stipulate exemptions. In addition, there are a total of 434 laws that remain in force today. They represent a total of 1,300 tax exemptions. Similarly, 67% do not have a control mechanism and only 13% had an expiration term.
If approved, the project will strengthen the powers of the Fiscal Police to carry out raids and detentions related to non-compliance with exemptions. The main concern of the legislators has to do with the possibility of eliminating this privilege to companies located in the free zone.
Otto Vargas, legislator of the Republican Social Christian party, questioned the minister on the relevance of removing these benefits and the unemployment that can generate, to which Aguilar responded that the bill only establishes a reordering of the processes, not the elimination of the benefit.
The initiative has been in the legislative for about three years and it already has two substitute texts. The members of the commission asked the Treasury for a comparison to determine which of the proposals – the original or the two substitutes – is the most appropriate.