Mexican lawmakers will propose changes on Wednesday to a tax overhaul plan that President Enrique Pena Nieto hopes will boost the country's low tax receipts, and urge higher rates for top earners than previously planned, according to a draft obtained by Reuters.
Pena Nieto last month proposed a series of measures to raise Mexico's anaemic tax revenues by about $35 billion by 2018, but is grappling with stiff political opposition and lobbying from business groups.
He floated the idea of raising income taxes for wealthier Mexicans and slapping a levy on stock market gains, a universal pension and unemployment insurance, along with emergency spending that would force a budget deficit this year and next.
The fiscal reform proposal is a key plank of a wider reform agenda that Pena Nieto hopes will boost growth in Latin America's No.2 economy, and also includes measures to tax soft drinks and impose a carbon charge on polluters.
For their part, Lower House lawmakers will propose raising the proposed top rate on a sliding scale to 35 percent for those who earn more than 3 million pesos ($233,100) a year, above the 32 percent top rate that Pena Nieto had put forward, according to the draft reform revision.
Source: Reuters
