Cartes and Santiago Peña to blame for tax evasion - Edicion Impresa - ABC Color

With the recent unconstitutional bond issuance worth 500 million dollars, endorsed by the obsequious Supreme Court, public debt has reached 6.7 billion dollars, equivalent to 25% of Paraguay's GDP. Dissatisfied with the frantic pace of borrowing, which largely reflects a deliberate postponement of debt, the Ministry of Finance allegedly intends to place new bonds again this year to finance health projects and with the agreement of Congress, which the Ministry previously and conveniently saw fit to ignore.

Minister Peña believes that by succeeding to increase tax revenues there would be a greater margin to further indebt the country, without exceeding the deficit ceiling established by the Fiscal Responsibility Law. In other words, an increase in tax revenues would allow the Government to issue more bonds, and explicitly avoid any precise reduction of public debt. In short, they want to increase revenues to indebt Paraguayans more today, tomorrow and henceforth and not to release them from any financial burden already weighing against their backs. We here contend that tax revenues should...

Minister Peña now claims that he aims to reduce tax evasion and the informal economy without altering the current tax rates, which would be optimal. The problem is that we cannot believe him. Doesn't this Government know that the officials of the National Customs Directorate (DNA), for example, illegally become richer and unscrupulously exhibit the proceeds of their larceny in public? Nelson Valiente, the director, was appointed by President Horacio Cartes and reports to the Minister of Finance, according to the Customs Code. None of them can claim ignorance of the corruption in customs, as...

The question arises then, why do President Cartes and Minister Peña continue to tolerate stealing freely from Customs, as is public knowledge? There are only two answers to this: either they are involved in defrauding the treasury or they are politically committed to those sponsoring the thieves. There is no other possible explanation for their outright sloppiness. Thus, the Minister of Finance cannot expect to be taken seriously when he announces a fight against tax evasion and the underground economy, while in Customs, which reports to him, a daily feast is taking place at the public's...

For Minister Peña, the most viable course is to avoid pointing fingers at officials who have powerful political patrons. It is much easier to indebt the country than to confront the criminal tax evaders and smugglers leveraged from above, usually by senators and deputies who receive generous "briefcases" in exchange for looking the other way.