They call to review tax privileges of the wealthiest

Given the huge gaps that exist between people who have great fortunes and those with fewer resources, it is necessary to review tax privileges, together with investing more in social infrastructure and fighting corruption, said Alexandra Haas, executive director, Oxfam Mexico .

The specialist explained, in the framework of the presentation of the NGO report, “Who pays the bill?”, on the gaps between the wealthiest families and the most disadvantaged in the country, that inequality in Mexico is one of the biggest in the world.

“It is not that we are worse, there is a slight improvement, but it is insufficient in the face of the situation of inequality that we have already presented. The growing obligations of the State together with the fiscal space are the nucleus and the key of the report, which is precisely that the Mexican State has the obligation to guarantee rights, access to health, education, which by the way is the way for people out of poverty,” he said.

With regard to implementing a tax on the 1% richest population in the country, as proposed in the report to allocate it to items such as health, Alexandra Haas acknowledged that it is a “very big” challenge.

“There is a phenomenon that we call the capture of the State, which is precisely when the people who have more resources pressure the government so that it makes reforms or removes laws that harm them and that is why the accumulation of wealth is so delicate,” he said.

He explained that in the Latin American and Caribbean region there have been reforms in countries such as Colombia, Argentina and Bolivia so that people with greater resources pay taxes for their wealth.

The expert considered that these changes in Mexico could be seen in two years, since it is usually “easier for governments at the beginning to start with a tax reform of this type, precisely because it is politically sensitive, which was what the Petro government did. (Colombia) and it seems that Boric’s government (Chile) will soon do the same (…) it seems to us that the region has a strong momentum, we could have a good and useful reform for everyone. Inequality does not suit anyone.”

Corruption, another factor

On the other hand, he affirmed that another of the challenges is the elimination of corruption, since to guarantee the correct use of these collected resources, it is necessary to guarantee that they are being used correctly in the appropriate programs.

“Every time there is talk of raising taxes, towards anyone, there is a very strong questioning about the issue of corruption (…) we know that this part of the discussion has to go through questioning whether the mechanisms are sufficient, making evaluations what are the achievements and the enormous challenges that it still represents in Mexico”, he pointed out.

ivan.rodriguez@eleconomista.mx