It’s not populist, it’s consistent.”
Carlos Avendaño, head of National Restoration, spoke against the criticism for the way his party voted on the Public Finance Strengthening project, where they contributed with 14 votes against the proposal.
He believes the decision is not populist, but is consistent with what they’ve said for the last five months: they agree with a tax reform but without including the basic basket, medicines, private health, among other items.
For that reason, he recalled that they presented several motions of reiteration to find a way for these products and services to be exempted, a situation that would have changed the opinion of the bench.
His statements were supported by Eduardo Cruickshank, another legislator from the party, who said that due to the limited possibility to make changes to the project from the Plenary, they ended up tilting the balance towards the no.
To send the bill for consultation to the Constitutional Chamber, the signatures of 10 legislators are required; therefore, National Restoration would be vital for that purpose. They will meet later this week to define whether to send it or not and on which guidelines.
Last week, Cruickshank consulted the Technical Services Department of the Legislative Assembly about the period for the publication and consultations with various institutions, and the response was “once the process is completed in the Special Commission,” although Carolina Hidalgo, president of the Congress, said that this publication was made at the right time based on the previous text.