Three out of four Costa Ricans disagree with the country’s future tax reform plan, according to a poll by Unimer for the daily La Nación.
The results of the poll were published Monday by the newspaper, and showed that 75 percent of those citizens who know about the reform disagree with its future implementation.
Only 13 percent agreed with the tax reform, while the remaining 12 percent did not give an opinion.
The tax reform is currently under the discussion in Congress and its main goal is to increase revenue through taxes. Approving the reform has become the Laura Chinchilla administration’s main goal.
Last year, Costa Rica’s debt reached 4.4 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, and the country expects a rise in that debt for 2012.
The government responded to the poll results in a press release.
“It is common that raising taxes generates predominantly negative reactions from the public. This attitude can be found here in Costa Rica and in many other countries. Even if, such as in the case of this tax reform, 70 percent of the revenue will be paid for by the richest 20 percent of the population,” read the press release.
According to the poll, when the citizens were shown a list of options to resolve the fiscal deficit, 50 percent favored a decrease in public expenditures and 46 percent opted for better collection of already existing taxes.
