Decrees for the economic reactivation

To promote the reactivation of the different economic sectors of the country, decrees regarding the infrastructure of tourism projects, the arrival of mega investments and the exports an electro invoicing processes were developed.

• Infrastructure for Special Tourism Projects (Decree 1155 of 2020):
  • Regulates the application of article 264 of the National Development Plan (Law 1955 of 2019).
  • Large-scale tourism projects will be developed in areas of the national territory in which, taking into account their geographical location, cultural, environmental and/or social values, as well as the feasibility of connectivity, they will become sites of high strategic importance for the development or improvement of the country's tourism potential.
  • The Vice Ministry of Tourism receives and evaluates the initiative and will issue the administrative act of qualification as a “Large Scale Special Tourism Project (PTE)” and the approval of the Master Plan. The initiative may be started directly by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, public (any national, departmental, municipal, or district authority), private or presented jointly between the public and private sectors or between public entities.
  • For an initiative to be classified as a Large-Scale Special Tourism Project (PTE), it must contribute significantly to the fulfillment of the Tourism goals set in the National Development Plan and in the Tourism Sector Plan.
  • To articulate the different levels of government, the Ministry of Commerce, with the support of the Ministry of housing, the mayors, and the project promoter, will carry out the process of coordinating the formulation of the proposal.
  • A procedure is established for the exceptional modification of the Land Use Plan which must be initiated by the mayor in order to adjust it to the regulations.
• Plan Vallejo Express (Decree pending):
  • Vallejo Express Plan: The export commitments of the special import export systems programs (Vallejo Plan) of raw materials, capital goods and spare parts are made more flexible to reactivate the economy, allocating the production of goods to export and to the domestic market.
  • Plan Vallejo Traditional: The process is simplified, its approval and export commitments are streamlined, passing, in the case of raw material programs, to allocate a part of its production, no greater than 40%, to the national market; While in the capital goods and spare parts programs, according to the program, the increase of the production is reduced from 70% to 50%, and in other cases, the export commitment goes from an equivalent value of 1.5 times to 1.2 times the value of imported goods. This instrument has already been approved by the Triple A Committee and is in the process of disclosure with the private sector to issue its regulatory decree.
• Promotion for the Shipyard Industry – ProAstilleros (Decree 1156 of 2020):
  • The ProAstilleros Program allows the importation of 395 elements necessary for the production of vessels or their parts with a 0% duty benefit.
  • It seeks to streamline the existing administrative approval procedure applicable to the Shipyard Industry Development Program, as well as to unify and strengthen the program's monitoring and control instruments in accordance with current customs regulations.
• Mega-investments (Decree 1157 of 2020):
  • New investments within the national territory with a value equal to or greater than 30,000,000 UVTs (COP $1,068,210,000,000 USD $305,202,857 ), which generate at least 400 direct jobs will be able to access the following benefits: Income tax rate of 27%; accelerated depreciation in two years, Dividends tax exemption, equity tax exemption, legal tax stability by a contract with the Government that maintain the benefits in case of unfavorable modifications to the regime in exchange for the payment of a premium of 0.75% of the value of the investment made in each year during a period of 5 years.
  • Mega-investments in the high-tech, emerging and exponential technology and e-commerce sectors will have a requirement to generate at least two hundred and fifty (250) direct jobs. Investments in the national aeronautical sector are included, for a value equal to or greater than two million (2,000,000) UVTs (COP $ 72,214,000,000, USD $ 20,346,857) and have to generate 400 new direct jobs.
  • Industrial users of goods and services or industrial users of services of the free trade zones may apply the income tax regime provided for the Megainvestments.
  • The Decree develops the requirements and the procedure for classifying investment projects as mega-investments by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism. Direct employment is defined as that which is generated when the company benefiting from the megainvestment regime directly links personnel through labour contracts, for the development of its income-generating activity, including the investment. It does not extend to indirect employment or employment under other types of contract.
  • The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Tourism must request a prior technical concept from the competent entity of the sector object of the investment.
• Electronic invoice as a security (Decree 1154 of 2020):
  • The electronic circulation of the electronic bill of sale is regulated as a security.
  • The sales invoices as a security must be registered in the RADIAN (Record of electronic sales invoice considered a security).