In recent days one can see notices of sales and rentals of premises proliferating in the streets and avenues of the main commercial areas of San Cristóbal. Venues where until a few months ago small or medium-sized companies still operated.
Luz Dary Depablos // Correspondent lapatilla.com
The high costs of municipal taxes and the increase in prices of public services in the midst of falling sales due to the low purchasing power of the majority of the people in Táchira State, have forced many merchants to lower their “santamarias” (close down, liquidate).
A businessman from the “Barrio Obrero” neighborhood of San Cristóbal, who asked to protect his identity, had to reduce part of his local staff and remove external signs due to high taxes, added to low sales.
Likewise, several nearby businesses decided to put their properties up for sale, because “it is expensive for them to posses a good that, instead of generating income, generates expenses.”
For Tiziana Polesel, President of the National Council of Commerce and Services (Consecomercio), it is important to set limits to the Tax Harmonization Law, which was approved in the first discussion, “because unfortunately many municipalities, far from seeking to affiliate, or seek to register more companies, force and formalize the informal (black) commerce, what they are is charging the increase in their costs to the few merchants who pay those fees and taxes.”
“The way we merchants increase our sales is by looking for more customers, not making the product more expensive, because making the product more expensive is the worst policy,” said Polesel.
These actions must be promoting informality, because in her opinion “what exists is a relationship between fiscal voracity and informality”, which would be occurring in all the municipalities of the country.
“The only way to combat informality is to increase the tax base, and we have not seen a plan in any municipality that seeks to recruit informal workers and increase that tax base,” she said.
Therefore, she made a call to the regional chambers, as she assures that from the business union they have maintained communication with “Seniat” (Tax Office) officials, who have told them that they will not enforce the closure of businesses, so in the case of municipalities, merchants must go to the local chambers and present their cases.
Business Transactions in Registry Offices
Regarding the issue of registries, she recalled that more than a month ago they spoke out as a result of ongoing problems.
“There is unwarranted discretionallity in the notarynoffices when signing some documents, because specific cases were reported.”
She emphasized that, in the case of Táchira, because it is a border state, problems have been generated mainly with foreigners, who must register and then “wait for authorization to sign documents. This is a recent (arbitrary) measure that has delayed many operations and precisely because of the characteristics of this state, it is where the most cases were reported.
However, the trade union has observed that after the pronouncement there has been “a certain speedup in the qualifications of foreigners and also a little more rationality at the time of registration.”
She insisted that a registry of “a commercial transaction cannot be greater fees and taxe than what is paid for the good or the value of the property.”
She commented that “there were cases in which for the sale of a motorcycle more was paid for registration than for the sale of the asset, that is inadmissible, that is irrational.”
Sales collapse in Táchira
The President of Consecomercio explained that Táchira had been the only state that had reported “having sold more units than in January of last year”. This could be associated with the reopening of the border.
However, “that same panel reports to us is that in March and April sales began to contract and Táchira once again enters the national statistics of the contraction in sales in absolute units.”
“This is already being seen throughout the country, in establishments that had three or four branches, some are closing, statistically this is not felt because the Rif (Tax Registry Number) is only one, the company does not close, but it does cut down,” she said.
The contraction is general, but the goods and services sector is one of the most affected.
“It is observed in medicines, food, auto parts, but there are sectors where it is much more recent, footwear, clothing and everything related to recreation,” Tiziana Polesel pointed out.