A.M. Costa Rica Third News Page |
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| San José, Costa Rica, Thursday, July 24, 2014, Vol. 14, No. 145 | |
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| Page One is HERE! Page 2 is HERE! Page 4 is HERE! | NEXT PAGE |
| Tourism industry leaders wrestle with looming sales tax
impact |
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By
Michael Krumholtz
of the A.M. Costa Rica staff Citing higher costs that could push tourists away from Costa Rica, tourism industry leaders decried the finance ministry's decision to put a sales tax on entrances into protected lands and national parks as well as tourist activities. Wednesday Pablo Heriberto Abarca, president of the Cámera Nacional de Turismo, said the added sales tax is unconstitutional and based on subjective interpretation. The section of the 1982 general sales tax law under debate says night clubs, social centers, and recreation centers or gyms are subject to taxes. This new tariff implies that adventure tours like hiking, canopy, or rafting are benefiting from public lands and should thus be charged within this grouping. “The tax law does not even clearly state national parks nor does it  A.M. Costa Rica/Michael Krumholtz
Pablo Heriberto Abarca makes a
point while flanked by Luis Vázquez Castro and Kathia Valverde
Madrigal. |
say
anything about activities and tours,” Abarca said. “This tax has never
been collected and now, 384 months after the creation of the Ley del
Impuesto General de Ventas, they hope to add on to the law through an
interpretation.” The increased fees are due to take effect next Wednesday, three months after an April 30 decree issued by the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía that increased entrance fees into public protected areas. Abarca claims that tourism authorities were never given an official notification of the Ministerio de Hacienda's plans to impose the tax. Kathia Valverde Madrigal, the president of Costa Rica's association for tourism operators, said immediate consequences will follow this tax for an industry that is already reeling from mounting expenses. “It's clearly going to affect numbers for tourism businesses,” Ms. Valverde said. “Costa Rica cannot allow its tourism sector to keep dropping as more and more people go to places like Nicaragua and Panamá. We can't keep being the most expensive choice.” She said tour guide and adventure travel companies will have to take up the burden of paying the charge, especially if they are traveling with dozens of patrons. Tourists already pay high costs to enter national parks without this new recreation tax, including a $16 per person fee to enter Paque Nacional Manuel Antonio. Rising prices for tourists, companies that decide to avoid national parks all together, and potential business closures are all foreseeable consequences that could pop up, Ms. Valverde said. Tuesday lawmakers argued whether a retroactive assessment of the sales tax was valid. “It seems that they're wanting to carve out the tourism sector just over an interpretation of the law,” said Luis Vázquez Castro, head of the Asamblea Legislativa's tourism commission. Ms. Valverde and Abarca are scheduled to meet soon with the tourism minister, Wilhelm Von Breymann, and the finance minister, Helio Fallas, to analyze the problems that now confront businesses in the industry. |
 Judicial
Investigating Organization photos
A variety of pots, a jaguar bowl and well-used metates and a mano make up the collection |
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| Judicial agents confiscate pre-Columbian collection from
Santa Rosa |
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By
the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Judicial investigators raided a summer home in Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and confiscated 67 pre-Columbian pieces, mostly pots. Although the Judicial Investigating Organization characterized the pots as having high value, they were mostly nondescript, plain bowls and three metates and a mano used at one time for grinding grain. None appears to be ready for display in the Museo Nacional. It was museum officials who triggered the raid. The most elaborate of the pieces, an anthropomorphic pot, has a broken rim. It had the figure of a man with the protruding head of a jaguar. Judicial police said that the home was the property of a man from Heredia who was not further identified. Judicial investigators said that part of the high value was due to the historic and cultural value of the pots. They also said that the property owner would face an action from prosecutors. |
The pots most
likely will end up in the museum's storage facilities in
Pavas. Museum officials are aggressive in confiscating all sorts of
pre-Columbian artifacts, in part to reduce the illegal trade. Many of
the pieces were collected by Costa Ricans and expats before there was a
law prohibiting this type of activity. In the past, the museum has been forced to return some pieces because there was a high probability that they were collected legally. Museum officials will catalogue archaeological pieces in private collections on the assumption that they belong to the state. Costa Rica's museums have a large quantity of pieces for which workers have no record as to when and where they were collected. So as archaeological finds, they are worthless. Santa Cruz in pre-Columbian times were influenced heavily by cultures to the north. The section that is now Guanacaste was nominally a dependency of the Aztec Empire in the Valley of México. This area was a source for ceramics and tribute. Residents still make ornate polychrome pieces in the style of their ancestors. |
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