Guatemala: Industrialists Reject New Taxes

The argument is that the tax on cement will increase the cost of housing by at least 6% and the tax on phones will directly affect users of prepaid telephone lines.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

From a statement issued by the Chamber of Industry of Guatemala:

The Chamber of Industry of Guatemala emphasizes that even though it promptly denounced the risk of lack of transparency and accountability of the state budget for Fiscal Year 2015, it has been approved and will lead to negative impacts on the population.

Given this situation, the Chamber of Industry of Guatemala, has stated his position regarding the impact that this measure will have:

APPROVAL OF BUDGET AND TAXES

- There was a lack of technical discussion and it was approved in haste

- "Locks" were removed and Control Standards for NGOs were removed, opening the door to increased levels of corruption.

- It includes almost 2 billion for the Ministry of Communications Infrastructure and Housing and 500 million for municipalities, neither of which have specific nor accurate targets, a situation that compromises the transparency and implementation of these resources.

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More on this topic

Guatemala: Telephony Tax Under Question

February 2015

In Congress doubts are being voiced over the effectiveness of the application of a tax of $0.65 per phone line and $13 for call centers.

Among the nine challenges presented by deputies to the proposal to place a tax on phones, the lack of definition of the use of funds and details about who should pay the tax stand out the most, in particular whether it should be the user or the business who pays.

Guatemala: Tax on Telephony Suspended

January 2015

The application of tax of $0.65 per mobile phone line that had been proposed by the Executive to fund part of the 2015 budget has been temporarily suspended.

The Constitutional Court temporarily suspended the collection of the tax on telephone lines after the Chamber of Industry and the three phone companies operating in the country submitted an appeal against the tax.

Guatemala: Phone Lines Returned to State

December 2014

In response to approval of a new tax of $0.65 per telephone line, operating companies have returned 6 million lines to the Telecommunications Superintendency.

Representatives from Claro, Tigo and Telefónica each returned 2 million inactive numbers with the aim of adjusting their internal policies to adapt to the new tax which will come into effect next year.

Honduras Telecommunications Law Reform

June 2011

Part of the changes will include a merger of telephone companies.

The Honduran Congress has recently passed a series of amendments to the Framework on Telecommunications Act, which regulates the industry’s operation .

The potential merging of phone companies has been approved in order to increase competitiveness in certain circumstances.

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