Marisol Andrade

GENERAL DIRECTOR, INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE (SRI)

Since January 2021, there has been a 12% increase in tax collection. What have been the main causes of this increase?

In 2021, we saw a growth of around USD1,220 million more (12% approximately) compared to the figures published from January to October 2021 in relation to the same period of 2020. There are basically two reasons for this. There was an economic revival with an increase in sales across different sectors and provinces of the country, even places such as the Galápagos that depends mainly on tourism. In addition, there was another important factor that affected the tax collection increase, which mainly involves the management of SRI in tax collection. We focus on strengthening our activities with international technical assistance and having better information exchange tools, strengthening fiscal transparency. Since September, we have started automatic information exchange processes with more than 100 countries around the world, which Ecuador did not have before. All of this, in addition to the tax management of the IRS of Ecuador, has allowed us to generate a significant increase in tax collection, that implies the development of audits, semi-intensive processes such as payment settlements and persuasive preventive processes. Our management has also focused on achieving payment actions derived from legal monitoring of ongoing legal cases. Since October 2021, we have collected around USD660 million, and we expect to close the year with a collection derived from the collection portfolio of around USD800 million. The collection target for 2022 is approximately USD13.28 million. It will be much higher growth than estimated.

All sectors have experienced growth except for construction. What is the reason for that and what should be done?

The construction sector had its own particular factors in the last few years, and growth has increased. During the pandemic, it had greater challenges due to the halt in activities. We can now see growth; the sector declined by around 40% in 2021, and now this figure is smaller at 23%, and the sector is starting to grow. The sector had to reactivate its activities and follow new safety protocols, and with this it was possible to improve sales. We expect by the end of December to have an increase in the provision of loans in public and private banks, which will result in more growth.

Industrial production is on the up in Ecuador, rising 30.3% YoY in September 2020