The initiative, which was never reviewed by the Congress of the Republic, established the increase or imposition of the Value Added Tax (VAT) on services and products and the expansion of the tax base on wages, which, according to specialists, would affect the middle class and people with lower purchasing power.

Union and student organizations and indigenous peoples rejected the proposed reform with a national strike on the main cities of the country since last Wednesday to pressure the Government of President Ivan Duque not to go ahead with the initiative.

On Sunday, the president announced the withdrawal of the bill, known as Sustainable Solidarity, and asked the Congress to urgently process a new proposal agreed with the rest of the political parties and sectors of society.

Carrasquilla was also the author of the previous tax reform bill submitted in 2004, during Alvaro Uribe’s government (2002-2010), for which they consider the impossibility of making the law viable for the second time as a red alert for his political career.

Local media confirmed that Deputy Finance Minister Juan Alberto Londoño also resigned from his post.

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