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Weekly Report - 13 August 2015 (WR-15-32)

COSTA RICA: Solís grapples with the big conundrum

President Luis Guillermo Solís is making a concerted effort to push through a seminal tax reform in Costa Rica to address a fiscal deficit that has ballooned over the course of the last decade. The objective is to increase the tax take - but by placing the burden on the wealthiest 60% of the population. Solís faces an uphill task. The political opposition, which dominates the 57-seat unicameral legislative assembly, opposes any tax reform without big public spending cuts. The private sector is also opposed to the proposed new taxes presented by the finance minister Vice-President Helio Fallas this week. But Solís has enlisted the support of the country’s veteran twice former president Oscar Arias (1986-1990; 2006-2010), of the main opposition Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN).

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