Colombia’s banking association said that the government’s decision to extend a tax that charges citizens for taking money out of the bank is an obstacle to strengthening the banking sector.
In a weekly report, the National Association of Financial Institutions (ANIF) said that President Juan Manuel Santos’ administration committed a serious error with the decision to extend the “cuatro por mil” (COP4 per COP1,000) tax for six more years, until 2017, Caracol Radio reported Monday.
The report stated that the tax encourages evasion of rent and sales taxes and stimulates bank-related robberies and murders, as well as making Colombia less competitive compared with other countries in the region, in terms of credit relations.
According to ANIF, despite government regulations to ensure that banking services and products become available to more Colombians, the tax instead serves as a “stick in the wheel” of the bank sector, and obstacles “have gotten worse,” newspaper El Espectador reported.
