20-08-2015: Latin American Weekly Report

One sign of the government’s willingness to make some limited concessions to its critics was an announcement that last year’s tax reforms – designed to raise annual government revenues equivalent to 3% of GDP to fund health and education reforms – are being simplified. After a series of meetings with congressional business leaders the government says it will now submit a new bill simplifying tax assessment, particularly for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Finance Minister Rodrigo Valdés said “This isn’t a reform within the reform. It is just the culmination of a process. We don’t want to open more discussions on tax, we just want simplifications.”