Bill in Congress for Taxing Tourist
Two congress women put two separate bills in congress with the intention to charge additional taxes to tourist, as well as implementing other requirements. One of the bills was brought by Shirley Díaz from the PUSC and the other by Paola Vega from PAC.
The intention of the bills is to charge an additional tax of $15 USD with the purpose to fund the eminent domain projects for the expansion of the national parks. The Costa Rican government has been implementing the eminent domain process with the purpose to acquire private lands to increase the area for national parks and wildlife refuges.
Just in 2017, the government acquired over 20,000 acres of land for the National Parks in Volcán Tenorio, Volcán Turrialba, Volcán Irazú, and the preservation areas of Juan Castro Blanco, Iguanita, and Nicolas Wessberg.
While ecotourism is an important sector for the Costa Rican economy, representing roughly 4.9% of the GDP, and thus it makes sense both from an environmental perspective and economic perspective to increase the size of the protected areas, the Chamber of Tourism and the ICT (Costa Rican Board of Tourism) consider the increase in taxes will have a negative effect in the industry.
In addition to the tax, both of the bills in Congress sets forth a requirement for the arriving tourist to demonstrate their financial ability to travel around the country by showing $500 USD in cash or by bank statement.
The costs to travel to Costa Rica is already the highest in the region, and with poor infrastructure as compared to Panama, the increase in taxes and requirements may create an incentive for tourist to travel to other countries.
A Bill in Congress?
A Bill in Congress is only a project for a law, it is not a law. Occasionally, people confuse a bill with a law. This bill to increase the taxes for tourists has not been approved yet. While there are two proponents of the bill, it must obtain at least a simple majority to get approved and become effective. Currently, it does not seem that Congress is interested in approving this bill.