As one of the richest men in one of Latin America’s poorest countries, Paraguay’s new president says he knows the wealthy can do more to combat poverty, starting with landowners like him who can afford to pay taxes on the soy profits that are fueling a booming economy.
In a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday, Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes condemned tax evaders, said he’ll require corporate partners to fund Paraguay’s social development and took credit for the country’s first tax on commodities. The new 10 percent tax on soy, corn, wheat and sunflower profits is expected to generate US$300 million a year by 2015.
“Many governments tried to do it, they always attacked the soy industry but they were never able to impose a single tax. We did it in less than a month,” Cartes said.
He said one of his key challenges is to crack down on tax evasion that costs the country half its revenues.
“Everyone must pay taxes. It’s shameful that despite such a low overall tax burden [13 percent of GDP], many people don’t pay,” he said.
Cartes sat down with The Associated Press in the presidential residence hours after returning from Chile, where he sought advice from another multimillionaire president, Sebastian Pinera.
He came back saying he wants to model his government on Chile’s and create “a serious country” where investors can count on profits and all government spending is accounted for in databases that can be viewed online.
“What’s public must be published,” he said. “Citizens make the best watchdogs.”
To be treated seriously, he said Paraguay also must own up to its mistakes, starting with his own Colorado Party’s failure to create more opportunities during 61 years in power that included the 1954 to 1989 dictatorship of general Alfredo Stroessner. An essentially nationalist party that claims to represent the poor should have done better, he said, but 40 percent of the 6.5 million Paraguayans are stuck in poverty, and 18 percent are extremely poor.
“That’s why I made fighting poverty a key part of the campaign, so that tomorrow they can say ‘this is what he said and this is what he did,’” Cartes said.
However, as Paraguay’s wealthy landowners swim in commodity profits and the economy grows at a 13 percent clip, the country is bankrupt.
Former Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo’s government burned through a US$3 billion surplus before his presidency was cut short by impeachment last year. By August, there was only US$1 million left, forcing the government to cover operating expenses with new debt. Doctors and teachers have not been paid for months, and if Cartes wants to travel anywhere, he has to buy his own fuel.
Cartes says the only way to satisfy the people’s demands for jobs, education and other opportunities is “to have a country serious enough to create an ideal climate for foreign investment.”
He said Chilean experts are already helping Paraguay modernize its databases, develop mining regulations and reform its educational system.
“Paraguay has an immense number of poor people in a country that is immensely wealthy” in terms of its natural resources, he said.
Chile also used to have a 40 percent poverty rate, he added.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS