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Tax Man Wants His Share
Now,
the La Dirección General de
Tributación - the Tax Man - has
started to dig into the affairs
of those accused or linked to
all the scandals - the
Fischel-Caja, ICE-Alcatel and
the Compañía de Fuerza y Luz (FyL).
The FyL scandal surfaced with arrest of former
president Rodríguez when it was discovered that he got a payback on
the contract for the underground cabling of San José.
Heading the list at Tributación is Alfonso Guaradia, first cousin of
former president Rafael Angel Calderón, according to José Armando
Fallas, director of Tributación.
Fallas says that an investigation has been underway since September.
Some 27 people are being closely investigated with respect to
irregularities in their income tax reporting and will be notified
shortly.
Tributación will likely present charges before the Ministerio
Público in a process to recover unpaid taxes. In addition,
Tributación has the power to access bank accounts of those under
investigation.
Fallas explained that if Tributación determines that the difference
between what has been reported and what we find is more than 200
times the "salarios basicos" (¢33.000.000 colones or us$74.000) then
Tributación can file charges against the accused, who then face five
to ten years in prison, pay the back taxes, plus a 25% fine on the
amount owed.
ICE-Alcatel Scandal
List Grows By Two
The ICE-Alcatel list of suspects keeps on
growing. Two new additions were made to the list that includes
former president Miguel Angel Rodríguez, his former Housing Minister
and director of ICE, José Antonio Lobo (who gave up Rodríguez),
along with a score of other ICE employees and the former president
of Alcatel Costa Rica, Edgar Valverde.
Leonel Barrios and Alfonso Guardia were both asked to meet with
prosecutors at the Fiscalía de Delitos Económicos yesterday,
following a raid on their homes earlier in the morning.
The Ministerio Público had ordered the Organismo de Investigación
Judicial (OIJ) to the raid the homes of Barrios and Guardia in
search of incriminating evidence that ties the two men to the
growing ICE-Alcatel scandal.
Barrios told the press, "We told the truth. They have our
declarations and all will made pubic...".
Alfonso Guardia is also being investigated in the Fischel-Caja
scandal. Guardia is first cousin to former president Rafael Angel
Calderón, who is in preventive detention in the La Reforma prison on
accusations against him in the Fischel-Caja scandal.
The interview of the two men and the raid on their homes is a direct
result of the testimony that Hernán Bravo gave prosecutors last
week.
Bravo told the Fiscalía that he received us$900.000 from a company
controlled by Barrios and Guardia and originated from Alcatel, that
he knew was coming as a payoff.
Bravo, a former vice president of the board of directors at
the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), admits having
received us$900.000 from Alcatel. He is sorry and says will pay back
every cent.
Bravo had been ordered not to leave the country, sign in to
police every 15 days, not to be near 50km of a border point, and
post a us$100.000 dollar bond in exchange for his testimony.
High Cost of Gasoline Does Not
Deter Drivers
It appears that the
high cost of gasoline is no
deterrence for "Ticos" not to
use their cars. They complain,
but still, use their cars more
and more.
The price of gasoline jumped
¢90.50 colones since January
this year, due to the high cost
of crude oil that Costa Rica has
to purchase on foreign markets.
A litre of Super gasoline now
costa ¢361.5 colones, while
Regular gasoline is priced at
¢344.9 colones per litre and
deisel at ¢260.9.
The government is looking at
ways to cut the consumption of
gasoline, by studying the
possibility of changing public
employee work hours and the
implementation of train service
between Heredia and San José.
The government issued a request
to all public institutions to
present a proposal to reduce
gasoline consumption by us$5
million and $10 million per
month. The proposals are
expected by the middle of
November.
The Cámara Nacional de
Transportistas has been trying
to promote the use of public
transit, rather than people
bringing their cars to the
downtown area, but has had
little success in convincing
Ticos with cars to do so.
The Ministerio de Hacienda
(Revenue Ministry) had projected
tax revenues from the sale of
gasoline for the year 2004 to be
¢157.500 million colones. As of
August it had collected ¢105.306
million colones.
Thirty percent (30%) of all
revenues from the tax gasoline
is to go towards road repairs,
maintenance and construction.
However, Hacienda officials
admit that the other obligations
complicate their handing over of
the money to the Ministerio de
Obras Publica y Transporte (MOPT). |
