Colombia's Congress gave the
green light on Wednesday to a controversial bill that aims to
streamline the country's complicated tax system but at the cost
of reducing government tax receipts going forward.
Adjustments to President Juan Manuel Santos' tax proposal
were seen as a bitter pill for his administration, which had
wanted a reform that was revenue neutral for Latin America's
fourth-largest economy.
To get the tax reforms passed, Santos' government was forced
to call extra sessions of Congress and the president interrupted
regular television programming twice in the last month to
explain the reform to Colombians.