The Dian needs to be technologically strengthened and expand its staff, as indicated in the Report of the Committee of Experts on Equity and Tax Competitiveness.

In a forum on macroeconomics held last March 14 in Medellín, the president of the National Association of Financial Institutions (Anif), Sergio Clavijo Vergara, proposed to the government to end the Dian, due to the institutional, technological and hiring problems of the that suffers and that, according to him, are the causes of his low collection.

The structural deficit of public finances in our country is explained by low tax collection and inefficiencies in public spending. The low collection originates, in the first place, in the exaggerated tax benefits that companies have; and secondly, in the high evasion and tax evasion that these do to the national treasury.

While Colombia collects 15.6% of GDP in taxes, the OECD countries collect 34.3%, Latin America 22.7% on average, the United States 26%, Japan 32%, Argentina 31.3%, France 47.4 %. Germany 40.2%, Spain 33.9% and Brazil 32.2%. On the expenditure side, we have two problems: corruption and speculative capture of the public budget by financial capital.

The resources that the Public Treasury stops receiving for the evasion and the avoidance of the companies, and for the tributary gavels that the State has given them, amount to about $ 110 billion; and what is lost through corruption and speculative plundering of financial capital approaches $ 100 billion. In sum, public finances lose about $ 208 billion annually for these two reasons, as shown in the following table;

Income and VAT evasion $ 30

Tax benefits $ 80

Corruption $ 50

Debt service $ 48

Total $ 208

Figures in Billions of Colombian pesos

To solve the problem of evasion and avoidance, the Dian needs to strengthen itself technologically and expand its staff, as indicated in the Report of the Committee of Experts on Equity and Tax Competitiveness.

It also needs to redesign the rules on procedures and sanctions, in order to make them simpler and more transparent. And give greater autonomy to the entity so that it can get out of the game of the politician interests of each government.

The Dian has a limit in the growth of the collection, which does not go beyond a control to evasion and elusion. The $ 80 billion that is lost due to tax exemptions and deductions, plus the $ 50 that is lost due to corruption in public spending, requires other policies and measures.

At least we need to redesign the tax system to adjust it to Article 363 of the Constitution, which states that the tax system is based on the principles of "equity, efficiency and progressivity". That is to say, taxation should have more weight direct taxes, which are progressive, such as income; and less indirect taxes, such as VAT and consumption, which are regressive.

A progressive income rate must be established, that is, it should grow as profits grow, and eliminate the exaggerated benefits, as a way to close the gap between the nominal rate and the one actually paid by companies.

The issue of corruption is related to the quality of the political participation of citizens, which must choose in the positions of government and political collegiate bodies that are committed to social programs and economic development, to guarantee Decent Work. Today there is an opportunity for our vote to be responsible, ethical and programmatic.

Mr. Clavijo, representative of the Anif, instead of looking for the drowned upriver, should be campaigning among their affiliated affiliations to pay the taxes they must pay, and not be part of public corruption. As in the famous Odebrecht case, in which the AVAL group, the largest in the country, is immersed