Finance Ministry

The Comptroller recommended that President Carlos Alvarado punish her for having made an emergency payment shortly after the government took office last year.

Thousands of students and workers from the five public universities of Costa Rica marched to Casa Presidencial on Tuesday to protest against restrictions on the use of those institutions' budgets. 

One of the major proposed changes would swap the current sales tax for a value added tax that would encompass services as well as goods. Tourism activities would be exempt for the first year after the law goes into effect, then charged 5 percent in the second year, 10 percent in the third and 15 percent starting the fourth year.

The Finance Ministry investigation has fully identified a total of 69 local companies and corporations with links to cases listed in the Panama Papers. The remaining 51 are still under investigation.

Those who fail to submit informative returns before the extended deadline are exposed to fines ranging from 10 to 100 base salaries, equivalent to ₡4.2-₡42 million ($7,475-74,750).

Police operations are part of a surveillance strategy ahead of the distribution of Christmas bonuses that will begin this week.

The Finance Ministry this week reported that problems with Customs duties in the past year resulted in the seizure of thousands of packages, most of them online purchases made between October and December, boosted by Black Friday and Christmas.

A spike of almost 30 percent in the number of traffic accidents recorded in Costa Rica during first eight months of this year prompted an increase in the price of the mandatory automobile insurance for 2017.

As of Oct. 1 workers whose gross monthly income is less than ₡792,000 ($1,417) will be exempt from paying the income tax.

The government's ₡9 trillion ($16 billion) budget proposal for 2017 is 12 percent higher than the 2016 budget mostly, the presidency says, because of accumulated debt.