As the commission of experts pointed out, the rates of these actors are low in relation to other activities in the economy. The debate on a reform should go through rethinking its obligations.
The growth data for the first quarter of 2021 at a time when the economy has not yet managed to take off again show the financial sector in a privileged position compared to others. And is that while the economy grew at 1.1% in the first quarter of 2021, the financial sector has done so at 4.9%.
This seems to be the regularity in the last decade: a sector that tends to grow above the rest of the lines in the economy and that even in no quarter of 2020 in the midst of the pandemic registered decrease data, as many other sectors of the local productive apparatus.
In the case of the concentrated Colombian banking system, where close to 70% is condensed into four major players, it is important to question the high levels of intermediation margins, which is nothing more than the difference between the interest rate and the interest rate. the one where the money is placed. In other words, if today a Colombian puts his savings in a CDT in a local bank for 360 days, he receives an annual interest close to 2.35%. If another Colombian requested a consumer loan for the same amount. the annual interest rate charged by the bank would be close to 22%. In this example the spread is close to 20%. Not to mention the rates in the microcredit spectrum, which in a country with high rates of informality is increasingly used by the actors of the popular economy.
Rates above 20% per year in the midst of the worst crisis of the century and more when the Banco de la República has its rate at historical lows of 1.75% should be the subject of greater questioning and leave the feeling that the economy in Colombia works for finances.
The country has intermediation margins much higher than other countries in the region, such as Mexico, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. On the other hand, today the pension funds, which are another financial actor in the hands of the same groups that dominate the banking market, have a large part of the Colombian public debt and at the same time their thought tanks are the ones that put the most pressure to carry out tax reforms that guarantee debt sustainability, without ever even thinking of rethinking its conditions.
Ironically, such a consolidated and concentrated sector is one of those that in the last decade has had low tax contributions relative to other sectors of the economy. According to the commission of tax experts, it is one of the sectors with the lowest effective tariff and, on the other hand, the Comptroller General of the Republic has indicated that it is one of the sectors with the most exemptions and deductions.
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google NewsMany of the proposals for the failed tax reform remained lax in this regard; for example, the dividend tax rate was modified, but it was still low compared to other countries.
The wealth tax, which was one of the progressive elements, brought its exemptions favorable to financial income. For example, it was proposed not to apply the temporary and solidarity tax to the wealth of foreign companies or entities that have assets in the form of shares, accounts receivable, portfolio investments or financial leasing contracts.
Another proposal reduced profit rates for capital investments on fixed public income in order to increase competitiveness, but in the end many of these investors in public-private alliances are the fiduciaries of those large conglomerates that today are the “ too big to fail ”of the Creole economy. Against this background, the defunct reform proposal was going to leave the financial sector in comfortable positions and, as in past reforms, the distributional debate was going to take a back seat. We must insist that tax reforms, rather than to cover fiscal gaps, should be focused on a better distribution, a central issue in these hectic days for the country.
It is no secret to anyone that Llorente’s vase of the current social situation was the obsession to carry out a tax reform with a strong emphasis on the payment of the public debt. The initiative that was advertised as solidarity and sustainable just one month after its fall has ended up unleashing a social outbreak that has shown the absence of solidarity and sustainability of macroeconomic policy in social terms.
A new tax reform cannot be lax with the financial sector, which is one of those that generate the highest income, but at the same time lower employment figures. A financial sector is required that works for the economy and its real recovery and not for a sector that continues to advance in its growth data as if it were an end in itself.
This must go through greater demands in tax matters on the dominant financial players in the local market and at the same time a greater public debate on the high rates of intermediation in this sector.
* Professor at the School of Economics of the National University.
