Costa Rica: More Taxes to Fund Urban Railway

A proposal has been made to raise the "Marchamo" (vehicle ownership tax) and selective consumption tax on vehicles in order to finance the construction of the modern train system which the Solis administration insists on implementing.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Despite the fact that last year proposals very similar to this were rejected in the Legislative Assembly, the Solis administration insists on raising funds to finance the construction of a modern train for the Greater Metropolitan Area.

See "Costa Rica: Money for Urban Train"

The initiative "... proposes increasing the cost of the Marchamo (or vehicle property tax), the selective consumption tax (paid when obtaining a vehicle) and the fees charged in tolls. In the case of the Marchamo, a change would be made to the minimum rate of collection (from ¢26,000 to ¢27,000) and an increase made to the percentages of the tax charged according to the value of the car. For example, currently a car with a value ranging between ¢1.3 million and ¢2.6 million incurs a tax of 1.5%; with the format proposed this would increase to 1.6% for cars between ¢1.7 million and ¢ 3.3 million."

See also: "Umpteenth Train Project in Costa Rica"

Nacion.com reports that "...The project was presented in the Assembly only last Wednesday, but the libertarian Otto Guevara has already announced his ´fierce oposición´. 'A few months ago we managed to exclude from the Incofer's strengthening project these taxes and an increase in tolls. When will they understand that the most sensible option is to promote an international tender for the design, construction and operation of a system of mass transport for people by train, subway or monorail?', said the libertarian."

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