In the Multipurpose Room of the Enrique Molina Garmendia Campus, the conference ''Tax Reform and Public Education'' was held, given by the former Rector of the University of Chile, Dr. Luis Riveros. In the activity, organized by the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of the University of La Serena, the academic gave his vision on the Government's announcements regarding education and the tax reform bill that seeks to mainly finance changes in education. .
This is how Dr. Luis Riveros referred to the dichotomy that exists in Chile between favorable economic results and competitiveness, as opposed to those related to education. ''This issue of education was significantly postponed, they always wanted to do more of the same and that resulted in the problems deepening,'' said the academic, adding that among the tasks that were not adequately addressed were the need to invest more and increase coverage in preschool education, the demunicipalization of public basic and secondary education, the distortions that have been accumulating as a result of the privatization strategy of education, and the reforms in Higher Education.
In this sense, he highlighted that for decades there has been an "orphanhood of the public system," referring to the abandonment of public universities by the State. ''That is something that must be corrected, and that means, first of all, that State universities must have a Direct Fiscal Contribution that is reasonable, to be able to somehow certify and demonstrate that they are from the State of Chile,'' he mentioned in his lecture.
Regarding the educational reform, he expressed that there has been no clarity in the announcements referring to the free education, what will happen with the delivery of free public resources to private universities, in concrete measures to strengthen higher technical education. , and a reform of the current Council of Rectors.
''Some announcements and projects have been delivered, but in my opinion they do not attack the fundamental part of the problem, which is quality, and this requires resources and a different commitment from the State,'' said the academic from the Faculty of Economics and Business of the U. of Chile.
Regarding the tax reform, he stated that Chile's tax base is restricted and small, ''consequently, it is good to think about why not have a higher tax base, especially because the Chilean system also has some distortions, among them, a reduced tax rate associated with companies. The proposal is totally reasonable, first of all with the economic reality; Companies are not being intervened, they are not being stripped of their legitimate profits, a system is simply being established that also corrects a second distortion, that the tax on people, especially the tax on professionals, on small businessmen, It has a tax base that is very high (...). "Then it is proposed to reduce that a little and raise the tax on companies, so that in the net there will also be an increase in the capacity of the Ministry of Finance to collect resources."
The former Rector of the University of Chile added that this ''creates the possibility of developing what the country has been able to consolidate until now: a credible, stable country, that has rules of the game that are respected (...) and consequently "That constitutes a sufficient basis to bring investment like the one the country needs to continue growing."
Regarding the Tax Utilities Fund (FUT), he indicated that it was a correct measure in a period of economic crisis, but that this special incentive for company investment is evidently no longer needed, even more so when one looks at the accumulated This untaxed fund is approximately 1 GDP.
It should be noted that the academic vice-rector of the ULS, Dr. Jorge Catalán, the dean of the FACSE, Mg Jorge Fernández, the director of the Department of Sciences were present at the activity. Economics and Business, Dr. Luperfina Rojas, the director of Teaching, Mg. Laura Vega, directors of Schools of the macrounit, the head of Admission and Enrollment, Eduardo Rojo, academics, students and special guests.