BOGOTA, April 10 (Reuters) – Colombia’s leftist government will propose a $4.39 billion tax reform to congress in the coming days, Finance Minister German Avila said on Friday, though the bill is unlikely to pass given a deeply divided, lame duck legislature.
“The financing bill we presented to adjust the 2026 budget amounted to 16 trillion pesos, and we believe this is the scale on which the tax reform proposal should be presented,” Avila told Blu Radio in an interview, referencing a financing bill sunk by congress in December.
The country’s legislature, where President Gustavo Petro has failed to pass his latest fiscal proposals, is wrapping up its current session in June. A new congress will be sworn in in late July.
The spending budget for Latin America’s fourth-largest economy this year is projected at 546.9 trillion pesos ($150.126 billion).
“We have fiscal problems that must be addressed adequately…, and to do so, among other things, we require a series of tax reforms that ensure higher tax revenues,” Avila said.
The independent Autonomous Committee on Fiscal Rule (CARF) said in March that Colombia’s shortfall in resources to meet the fiscal target set by the government for this year amounts to 32.1 trillion pesos ($8.811 billion).
The Finance Ministry revised its fiscal deficit target for this year to 5.1% of GDP from a previous 6.2%, although analysts and ratings agency Moody’s project it will exceed 6% of GDP.
($1 = 3,642.93 Colombian pesos)
(Reporting by Carlos Vargas)
