Venezuela’s Bolivarian Council of Mayors has signed a new tax agreement in 305 municipalities across the country. Called National Tax Harmonization Agreement, it will allow the nation to raise taxes and sanctions using the nation’s cryptocurrency – the Petro.
According to the recent local report, the mayor of the Libertador Bolivarian Municipality signed the document after a presidential pass on behalf of the Bolivarian Council of Mayors. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has appointed the Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez to “guarantee that the harmonization of all taxes is maintained in order to avoid double taxation.”
Rogriguez will also be responsible for developing a combined platform and a monitoring system for companies that prefer paying taxes with the Petro.
She noted that this “historic” document is possible “thanks to the efforts of the mayors, who sat at a table with the national economic team, under the direction of the Minister of Industries and National Production, Tareck El Aissami, and they have reached this important agreement.”
It’s worth noting that while the new bill has approved the Petro as a legal means to collect taxes, it has prohibited the tax collection in foreign currencies.
Jose Alejandro Teran, the mayor of Vargas, highlighted some of the benefits that could result from the new agreement. He noted that having a combined digital resource for all municipal taxpayers will allow the country to “strengthen the national taxpaying process and to give stability to inter-municipal informational systems.”
Additionally, Teran asserted that including the Petro as a unit of account for collecting fines and fees is an “innovative element” that could enhance protection against induced hyperinflation.
However, it’s worth noting that the state-owned cryptocurrency comes with its set of controversial implications. Launched a few years back, the Petro had a sluggish start. Despite country officials claiming that people were utilizing it frequently, some reports suggested the opposite.
In time, the Petro saw more real-life use cases, including an airdrop to doctors during the most intense period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Just recently, though, the United States government added the person behind the cryptocurrency to its list of most-wanted fugitives. US agencies accused Joselit Ramirez of having deep social and political connections to multiple alleged drug lords and offered up to $5 million as a reward for anyone willing to provide useful information.
And while the country’s government officials are trying to implement the Petro as a legitimate payment method, citizens have become increasingly fond of Bitcoin. Data provided by coin.dance reveals that the peer-to-peer BTC trading volume on the popular exchange LocalBitcoins recently reached a new all-time high in the local currency – Venezuelan Bolivar.
