The Minister of Economy and Finance dismissed the comments made by the opposition force after the changes in personal income tax and IASS.
The minister of Economy and Finance (MEF), lily arbelechedismissed this Wednesday at a press conference the criticism “baseless” coming from broad front (FA) after the announcement of tax reduction made by the president Luis Lacalle Pou before him Parliament last Thursday March 2.
Members of the FA point out that the announcement in question is merely about “a rebate” to taxpayers after the tax modifications that were executed between the years 2020 and 2021. The changes in question were the adjustment in the bands of IASS and the personal income taxand the removal of the return of two of the four points of VAT in debit card payments.
According to the head of the MEF, the FA’s criticism “does not surprise her”, since “it is always received” with each decision made by the government. For Arbeleche, it is not true that he “backed down” after a tax increase, because “the PCBs —Base of Benefits and Contributions— they can be adjusted for inflation or for the Average Wage Index (IMS)”, and that the government “from the beginning it clearly said that it was done with IMSbecause it is what gives neutrality in the collection”.
In addition, Arbeleche pointed out that currently “the situation is the opposite of what occurred in the previous two years, because we have salaries that increase more than inflation”, and that “what there is concretely is a reduction in taxes for a total of 150 million dollars”.
The Broad Front assures that the government collected almost 65 million dollars more
From the FA they assure that after the change of methodology to the IMS, the government began to collect almost 65 million dollars a year more than it would have been if the adjustment for inflation had been maintained, within a context of contraction in real wages.
Likewise, the president of the FA, Fernando Pereiraassured that the government collected other 35 million dollars due to a fall in the VAT refund and 12 million dollars for him covid fund. The opposition leader remarked that there are approximately 300 million dollars more collection, but they return to the population “a little bit” because the electoral campaign is approaching.
Source: Ambito
