The Legislative Assembly approved in second debate a bill that aims to tax in the country the sale and self-consumption of imported or locally produced cement.
The initiative, which was approved in the first debate in the Assembly in mid-February and is still pending approval by the Executive Branch, establishes that the tax will be on imported cement produced nationally, in bags or in bulk, for sale or self-consumption, of any kind, whose destination is the consumption and marketing of the product nationally.
A bureaucracy that keeps delaying delivery of construction licenses, is now joined by a possible cement tax proposed by the government.
Entrepreneurs in the sector anticipate a relatively poor performance for the sector in the remainder of the year, although no significant increases are expected in the prices of materials in general.The possibility that the proposal to levy $0.65 per sack of cement actually materializes comes on top of problems faced in obtaining building permits, which has forced some projects to grind to a halt.
The construction union of Guatemala states that construction costs have increased by about 6% since the entry into force in January of a tax on the distribution of cement.
Since the start of the charging of a $0.66 tax per bag of cement distributed, representatives from cement companies have reported a drop in sales.
Pelayo Llarena, president of the Chamber of Construction, told Elperiodico.com.gt that "...