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Surprise was the first reaction. Later there was annoyance in the Socialist Party when they learned that among the 16 names of the new tax group that will review the exemptions, there was the former vice president of the Central Bank, Manuel Marfán.
Although the economist who today is part of Cieplan was a member of this store, this time he was not named by the party to be in that group. Yes, there are representatives of all the political communities that were part of the June agreement through which the Covid Fund was created for US $ 12,000 million.
“The socialist party is not participating in that commission, it did not appoint a representative, therefore Marfán does not represent us,” warns deputy Manuel Monsalve, a member of the Finance Commission and an expert on this episode.
On this occasion the PS decided to withdraw after several failed conversations. From the Senate, they maintain that in March when they tried to form this group -before the pandemic-, the PS had proposed the former Treasurer, Hernan Frigolett, and add that the Minister of Finance, Ignacio Briones rejected the name. And on this occasion, the Socialists proposed to Lysette Henriquez, a name that the secretary of state initially rejected because his requirement was that she be an economist and she is an industrial engineer from the University of Chile.
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Version confirmed by Monsalve: “The minister spoke with the party through its president (Álvaro Elizalde). I understand that the minister raised a requirement that he must be an economist, a criterion with which there was no agreement, because there are many other actors who can participate in the debate without necessarily having a doctorate in economics as it was expressed. There was a difference ”.
Sources close to the Treasury state that the interpretation is diametrically different, because from the beginning the PS knew the requirement, and that the government was always willing to accept the name. And that they even waited more than a week for them to confirm their participation.
Connoisseurs of the process maintain that the commission always considered the participation of the PS. They insisted both with Senator Montes and with the party president, without there being an answer.
Legislative sources of the PS admit that the Treasury finally agreed, but Henríquez herself ruled out participating in those conditions “so ambivalent with her name”. So the party decided not to sit in that group that will analyze the OECD report on exemptions, despite the fact that even La Moneda, “on behalf of the President,” tried to make them participate.
“The PS did not appoint any representative and decided not to participate in this tax group. It is a political decision of the party for several reasons. One is because the party has been losing confidence in the agreements that are adopted with the Ministry of Finance, and why, this is a personal opinion, I do not believe that in what remains of the government of Sebastián Piñera a modification to the tax system will be proposed”, Emphasizes Monsalve.
Likewise, the deputy maintains that the creation of this group is due to a movement to weaken support for the project that establishes a tax on the super rich. “As the government has not managed to control this debate and is afraid that the same thing will happen as with the constitutional reform that allowed the withdrawal of 10% of the AFPs, it arms this tax group to say that it is available to change the system and weaken that project. . Here is one more strategy than will. We are not going to lend ourselves for it ”, emphasizes the deputy.
Until Wednesday night, the parliamentarians of this store believed that no figure linked to the party would be present in that group, and for this reason they were not pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of Marfán, so much so that some commented that this was “an aggression by the minister” towards the party.
