President Petro Announces Tax Reform to Achieve Social Equity

"May equality be possible," the Colombian President said when referring to his proposal for progressive taxation.

During his inaugural speech on Sunday, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro confirmed that his administration will present a tax reform to Congress to obtain resources to help the most vulnerable population.

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"Equality is possible if we are capable of creating wealth for everyone, and if we are capable of distributing it more fairly. That is why we propose an economy based on production, work, and knowledge. And that is why we propose a tax reform that generates justice," he said.

On Monday, Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo is expected to present to Congress a tax reform proposal to raise some US$11.5 billion, which will come from combating tax evasion and increasing the income tax for economic agents with the highest income.

"Ten percent of the Colombian population has 70 percent of the wealth," Petro recalled and streed that his country's extremely unequal income distribution is "nonsense and amorality."

"Let's not naturalize inequality and poverty. Let's not look the other way, let's not be complicit. With will, redistribution policies, and a justice program, we are going to make Colombia more equal and with more opportunities for everyone."

"We will be equal when those who have more pay their taxes with pleasure and pride, knowing that they will help boys and girls to grow up healthy, to think, and to live with the fullness that nutrition and education provide to the brain and soul." 

"Solidarity is in the tax paid by those who can pay it and in the public spending that goes to those who need it for their childhood, for their youth, for their old age," the Colombian President stressed.

He also explained that the tax reform "will not be confiscatory" but it will be fair "in a country that must recognize the enormous social inequality in which we live as an aberration, in a State that must protect the transparency of spending, and in a society that deserve to live in peace."