From: rjsalvad@iastate.edu (Ricardo J Salvador)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.mexican
Subject: Re: UNIX, ONIX, MEXICO y tus impuestos
Date: 2 Sep 92 02:40:53 GMT
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA

In article <1992Aug31.215306.10766@news.iastate.edu> rjsalvad@iastate.edu
(YO MERO!) writes:
>De acuerdo con la siguiente propaganda, para prosperar a Me'xico so'lo
>le haci'a falta reconocer que' tipo de sistemas de manejo de informacio'n
>eran necesarios ;).  
>
>FROM:  INFORMIX TIMES, Issue 3, August 1992
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHIP:     INFORMIX AND MEXICO'S HACIENDA Y CREDITO PUBLICO
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>The charter of Hacienda y Cre'dito Pu'blico, Mexico's internal tax agency,
>is to collect taxes from the 80 million Mexican citizens and from thousands
>of businesses.  Faced with increasing taxpayer evasion and dwindling public
>coffers, Hacienda installed an on-line information system based on Informix
>relational database management system (RDBMS) software, 75 Hewlett-Packard
>servers, and the UNIX operating system.  Since its installment in 1989, the
>new system has helped the agency manage information, locate tax evaders,
>and increase gross revenues by 20 percent.

>[...]

>A critical part of the deficit reduction was the government's ability to
>increase tax revenues by 20 percent.  This was accomplished by installing
>a more efficient, state-of-the-art information system based on Informix
>software.  Working through a local Informix distributor, Hacienda has 
>developed the tools to locate and track tax evaders, which has enabled
>the government to fill the treasury and improve its fiscal standing.

>[...]

Pense' que como complemento a lo anterior puedieran interesarles los
siguientes extractos de unas entrevistas aparecidas en la revista Forbes
(17 agosto 1992) con Carlos Salinas y Pedro Aspe.  Quienes hacen la
entrevista son los se~ores Malcolm Forbes Jr. y James W. Michaels
(identificados aqui' sencillamente con: F), quienes a veces suenan
igual de lambizcones como los "periodistas" de Televisa.  El presi
viene identificado con: CS, y el ministro de hacienda con: PA.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
F:  In addition to reducing domestic debt, you've also substantially
    reduced tax rates.
CS: Oh, yes, we reduced tax rates and we increased the tax base.
    We know we have to be competitive [in tax rates] on an international
    level if we are to compete for capital, which in the Nineties will
    be the key question for economic success or failure.  We've reduced
    tax rates and strengthened enforcement, and now we are getting more
    revenue out of [lower] tax rates.  Inflation had reached almost 200%
    three years ago; this year it's going toward 10%.  The main tool for
    reducing inflation is on the fiscal side.  This year we're running a
    [budgetary] surplus for the first time in history.
F:  It has always been tough in Mexico to go into business without cutting
    in the old political bosses.  Have you made it easier for people to
    start small businesses?
CS: Oh, much, much easier.  We have deregulated, and deregulation has 
    opened the way for practically anyone who has the means, the desire
    the resources to do so to open a business.  We've established a
    program for smalland medium-sized enterprises.  Last year we 
    provided financial support for more than 100,000 new small and
    medium-sized firms.  Also training and technological packages and
    commercial education.  This small business program is separate from
    Solidarity (Solidaridad).  Solidarity works with the slums and the
    rural communities.  The small and medium-size enterprises support is
    a program at the Nacioanl Financiera, the government development
    bank.
F:  Something like the U.S. Small Business Administration?
CS: Hopefully, better.
F:  Touche'!  But Mr. President, to the extent that you spread opportunity
    at the local level, you undermine the old bosses, who always delivered
    the vote for your party, the PRI.
CS: Oh, certainly.  The social bases of [political] support have already
    changed.  I am opening opportunities for the new social leadership to
    participate and to be able to channel their energies and the capacities
    to transform the country.  It is the responsibility of the party
    [the long-reigning PRI] to transform itself, to be able to capture for
    the party these new forms of social organization and participation.

Y con esta maravillosa mezcla de pensamiento "nuevo" y del requete viejo
de siempre, cambiamos con Aspe:

F:  Well, some people are pretty worried about your current account
    deficit--$11 billion is a lot of money in an economy like Mexico's.
PA: There are four things that are important with respect to trade.  The
    first thing is whether the country is capital-intensive or labor-
    intensive.
F:  You're saying that a country where labor is cheap needs to import
    capital.  That's common sense.
PA: In the 1950s, when Japan was labor-intensive, it was good that Japan
    had a current account deficit.  Then Japan became highly capital-
    intensive and now has a surplus of capital.
F:  This is getting complicated.
PA: I'm sorry if I sound professorial.
F:  Don't apologize.  It's a pleasure to meet someone running an economy
    who understands economics.
PA: Okay.  Now be careful.  I've said a current account deficit like
    Mexico's can be good.  But you can also have a current account deficit
    for a bad reason.  If the government has a balanced budget like in
    Mexico, it is obviously the private sector that is using the imported
    capital.  The private sector is investing more than it is saving, and
    it needs net savings from the rest of the world.  That's happening in
    Mexico.
F:  This is the reverse of the situation ten years ago, when you were
    borrowing abroad to finance government consumption.
PA: Ten years ago it was 180 degrees the reverse.  Which brings me to
    the third part of my argument:  what is the private sector doing
    with the captial it imports?
F:  Well, if it is importing machinery and other capital goods, that must
    be good.
PA: And it's exactly what Mexico is doing now.  Our imports are growing
    at around 20%, but imports of capital goods and machinery are growing
    at 40%.  That concludes my lecture on current account deficits.
F:  I think we'll rush out and short the U.S. dollar.
PA: Well, for a while you can do it [finance government deficits with
    money borrowed abroad], but eventually the markets will stop
    financing you.  Even in an industrialized country these [government]
    deficits are very bad, too.  Let me tell you why...
F:  Please tell it to our Congress.
PA: An industrial country for a while can get by with a big fiscal deficit
    if the rest of the world is willing to finance you.  But what you are
    really doing is piling up debt, instead of building up factories. So
    you erode your competitiveness.  When you lose control of the fiscal
    deficit, sooner or later you get into trouble.
F:  Stop, Mr. Aspe.  You're hitting too close to home.  Let's talk about
    a pleasanter subject.  President Salinas has said that supply-side
    economics has worked very well in Mexico.  Would you elaborate?
PA: Only a few years back our maximum tax rate for individuals was 60.5%.
    Today it is 35%.  For a corporation, it was 42%; now it's 35%. On
    value-added tax we had two rates, 20% and 15%; now we have just one,
    10%.  And we have made 13 federal taxes dissapear.  We have zero tax
    on dividends.  Why should you tax corporations if they distribute the
    money?
F:  Come to Washington and convince our Congress.
PA: You know, a government should not mess around with the decision of the
    corporation to distribute dividends or not.  This is a typical
    entrepreneurial decision that the government should not mess around in.
F:  Your 35% top federal tax rate is higher than ours, but we have state
    and local income taxes.
PA: Ours includes state and local.  We sat down with all the states in
    Mexico, and we agreed that they will dismantle their income taxes
    and their sales taxes.  And out of the total revenue, we give them
    20.5% of the federal tax revenue.  In exchange, they do not impose
    specific taxes at the state level.
F:  Do you have a capital gains tax in Mexico?
PA: On all [publicly traded] firms the rate is zero.
F:  Basically, you've got a tax system that encourages saving and
    investment much more than ours does.
PA: We've also become tough on enforcement.  Though.  I'll give you just
    an idea.  Between 1921, when the revolutionaries won in Mexico, and
    1988, when President Salinas took office, we had only two cases where
    the treasury of Mexico obtained the final verdicts in a tax evasion.
    Two cases in 67 years.
F:  Now you put people in jail, including big stockbrokers and union
    bosses.  But lower tax rates are only part of supply-side.  The
    other side is better revenues.
PA: Our more simplified system with lower rates and fewer taxes and
    tougher enforcement has produced government revenues that are up 33%
    in real terms.  During these years the GDP has increased 11% in
    real terms, so one-third of this increased revenue is just higher
    economic activity.  But two-thirds come from the new tax system.

[...]

Aparte de las dos entrevistas, el mismo nu'mero contiene un arti'culo
en donde se describen el nuevo tipo de peque~as empresas que fomenta
la Nacional Financiera.  Los ejemplos vienende Izu'car de Matamoros
(Puebla) y del baji'o.

Hasta moztla,
Ricardo
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