The legislative period begins with the expectation posed by the processing of bills with high impact for the government's political management, some of which will test the strength of its alliance with the parties that brought it to power. An example of this is the Health Reform, which will test its alliance with the Cambio Radical bloc (of which they are authors and the minister of that sector is their quota in the cabinet), an initiative that could pave the way for alliances on other fronts of interest.
Projects like the regulation of life sentences for rapists will serve to improve relations with the Democratic Center, your party, and more conservative sectors (including the Conservative Party and movements of Christian origin). In any case, it is a fact that the government will try to sink projects such as the one that modifies the advisory commission on foreign relations or the one that promotes the music industry and guarantees social security for all artists, as well as the project through which aerial spraying is to be regulated, the one that prohibits the use of glyphosate, or the one that makes fracking a crime.
The opposition has come with universal basic income as their banner for the second half of this legislative term. However, their natural role has been to counterbalance the government, and the political debates with some government officials and their opposition to the tax reform will likely generate more discussion than anything else.
Congress prepares to discuss tax reform
In December 2020, the national government confirmed that it would introduce a tax reform bill in 2021 to address the economic challenges resulting from the pandemic. Colombia’s public and private external debt totaled US$1,414,822 million as of November 2020, a figure that, according to the Central Bank, represents a 7.11% increase compared to the amount recorded in the same month of 2019, when it stood at US$1,413,030 million. Currently, the country’s debt is equivalent to 54.81% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), that is, the total value of final goods and services produced by a country over a defined period of time.
In addition to high levels of public and private external debt, there are also the current challenges facing the tax system. Although the country has made progress on anti-evasion policies under this administration, challenges remain in terms of tax collection due to the high rate of informal employment, which, according to DANE, stood at 48.71% in January 2021.
The discussion surrounding tax reform arrives in the country in a context marked by the strong impact of COVID-19 on the economy, a changing political climate with upcoming elections in 2022, and a Congress that expects to debate another important reform that will have a significant impact on the country if approved: the health reform. For its part, the national government has the mission of improving the country's investment rating and advancing a tax reform that does not affect the progressive growth shown by the economic recovery in Colombia.
Healthcare reform is taking shape
This week, the health reform bill was submitted, and the final photo sent a powerful message: the Minister of Health gave his endorsement, Senators Castillo and Motoa posed together, putting aside the differences that blocked the legislative process in December, and congress members from the five strongest parties in Congress were in the photo.
The proposal includes a chapter dedicated to the care and containment of the pandemic, and very subtly raises the possibility of private sector vaccine imports and other technologies that guarantee access to preventive and curative treatments for the pandemic-generated disease, including through the figure of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). Likewise, it rescues concepts such as “collective risk,” whose management is imposed on the Nation and Territorial Entities, in contrast to the concept of “self-care,” whose responsibility falls on individuals and communities.
In this same vein, the initiative reiterates the focus on providing family and community health services, which would ultimately lead to the strengthening of the primary level of healthcare, where health promotion and prevention programs must be reinforced, as risk management falls upon them. Nevertheless, this approach is undeniably bold and, why not, ambitious, as the geographical difficulties for access, as well as the population and knowledge differences that must be integrated to comply with this policy, are no secret. On the other hand, it assigns the Superintendency of Health the function of inspection, surveillance, and control of entities in the sector regarding compliance with the measures adopted in the state of emergency declaration or infractions thereof.
This reform is undeniably ambitious, both economically and in its scope, as well as in its spirit. Strengthening primary care and generating early diagnoses and treatments that reduce underlying diseases saves many resources for the system, which can be redirected toward the care or strengthening of other areas with less coverage and growing demand, with less visible impacts such as mental health, which has been evidenced by isolation in the case of EPS, or occupational health (now from home), for ARLs.
The political climate for processing the initiative is ideal, as there is no more frequently discussed topic in the world than the pandemic, vaccination, and its impact on all fronts. Seizing this opportunity to push this reform could be a favorable public relations move for the Government, which is still receiving a lot of criticism for its handling of the pandemic. Of course, Cambio Radical also has its part to play in this process.
“Backdoor” labor reform”
The possibility of labor reform driven by the national government has been discussed since Alicia Arango was the Minister of Labor. However, the proposal did not materialize into a concrete bill, and what has been seen in the context of the pandemic is that congress members have introduced a high volume of bills regarding labor, which suggests that the reform will be realized in the form of a “patchwork quilt” or a sum of bills.
Home Office Regulation – This is one of the key projects in this “back-door” labor reform and will surely become a law of the republic. The fact that it is the accumulation of three projects, including one authored by the Ministry of Labor, gives it strength in the plenary sessions, the stage where it still needs to be approved.
Reduction of Working Hours – This is one of the projects with the greatest impact. It was introduced by the Democratic Center with the authorship of Álvaro Uribe. Senator Honorio Henríquez is the rapporteur, and its purpose is to reduce the weekly working hours from 48 to 40. It was approved by broad majorities in the Senate plenary session and has two more debates ahead. Its progress has been silent, and only in December of last year, when the media reported on its advancement, did the government, ANDI, Fenalco, and even the opposition led by Claudia López and Vargas Lleras express their rejection.