Palmira, will review cases of high increases in cadastral appraisals - Cali - Colombia

This week, the cadastral update has been the topic of conversation and controversy in Palmira.

The Palmira Interunion Civic Committee (CCIP), which brings together unions, businessmen and representatives of civil society from that city in Valle del Cauca, protested before the Mayor’s Office.

(You can read: The hero citizen of Cali will be trained as a rescuer)

The letter to the Mayor is signed by the Chamber of Commerce of Palmira, Asocaña, Procaña, Fenavi, Fenalco, Asodolores, Acopi, Andi, Pacific Free Zone, Lonja de Cali and the Inter-Guild Business Committee. The PICC asks for a comprehensive review for “the excessive increases in cadastral appraisals, which could represent disproportionate increases in the payment of property tax with values ​​above up to more than 100% after the validity of 2022”.

In the letter signed by Jhon García, director of the CCIP, it is stated: “We understand that within the framework of national regulations the country is migrating to having a multipurpose cadastre, but the convenience of when to do it and how to do it, in a recovery situation economic, it is a responsibility of the municipal Administration”.

The mayor of Palmira, Óscar Escobar, explained that the cadastral update had not been carried out for eight years, but He said that all concerns and values ​​that do not correspond in appraisals will be reviewed.

(We recommend: ‘Mano, we’re trapped’, last voice of two disappeared in Pance)

The Committee says that the measures taken to mitigate the increase in tax payments are recognized, but they are transitory short-term measures that leave the business community exposed, and in general, to a disproportionate increase in the medium and long term.

“Taxpayers will not be able to resist such an increase in a fragile economic and social environment, with high unemployment rates, uncertainty in international trade, high costs of raw materials, high inflation rates, among others,” the letter says.

It also warns about “possible effects related to tax aspects due to increases in assets and wealth; properties that cannot be sold because their cadastral value is higher than the commercial value; Affected buying and selling processes, and loss of competitiveness of the territory to attract investment”.

More news from Colombia

Death in the ‘hole’: the tragedy of a Bogotan crossing the US border

More than 100 affected families leave winter wave in Argelia, Cauca

China to Host Afghanistan's Neighbors to Review Post-Taliban Situation

Islamabad — 

Pakistan said Friday foreign ministers of six immediate neighbors of Afghanistan will gather in China next month to discuss economic and humanitarian upheavals facing the Taliban-ruled, conflict-torn country.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a news conference in Islamabad that his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, will also attend the Beijing-hosted two-day meeting starting March 30.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi gestures while addressing the members of the media in Islamabad, Feb. 25, 2022.

Qureshi said the discussions would focus on ways to protect the Afghan people from the humanitarian crisis and prevent an economic meltdown in Afghanistan.

“If there is, God forbid, an economic meltdown (in Afghanistan), its repercussions will hit not only Pakistan but other neighboring countries and the region at large,” Qureshi cautioned.

The gathering in China will be the third such dialogue among Afghanistan’s neighbors, including China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, since the Taliban takeover of the country in August.

Islamabad initiated and hosted the inaugural session of the process in September after the Taliban militarily seized power from the now-defunct Western-backed Afghan government and U.S.-led international forces withdrew from the country.

Tehran hosted the second foreign ministers’ meeting in late October.

Trilateral on sideline

A senior Pakistani Foreign Ministry official told VOA that Taliban leaders will be invited to the two-day discussions in China to allow them to directly share their assessment of the latest Afghan situation.

The official, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to media, said a trilateral dialogue involving Afghanistan, Pakistan and China will also be held on the sidelines of the meeting.

He said Chinese and Pakistani officials are expected to discuss and propose economic connectivity projects to Taliban delegates under an ongoing mega-infrastructure development program China is funding in Pakistan. The official did not share further details.

FILE – Passengers ride in a newly built Orange Line Metro Train, a metro project planned under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a day after an official opening in the eastern city of Lahore, Oct. 26, 2020.

The program, known as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is hailed as a flagship of Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative. It has built roads, power plants and other infrastructure projects in Pakistan with Chinese investments over the past seven years.

“The two sides are ready to discuss with Afghanistan the extension of CPEC to Afghanistan,” read a joint statement issued at the end of wide-ranging bilateral talks President Xi Jinping hosted with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in Beijing earlier this month.

Taliban legitimacy

When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan six months ago, wide-ranging international sanctions dating back to the Islamist group’s first time in power from 1996 to 2001 followed.

Washington and other Western nations also suspended financial aid to Kabul and immediately froze billions of dollars in the Afghan central bank’s assets, mostly held in the U.S.

The restrictions have pushed the country’s heavily aid-dependent economy to the brink of collapse, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where the United Nations estimates around 23 million people, or 55 percent of the population, face acute hunger.

FILE – Afghan men stand in a queue for a program offered by Afghanistan’s Taliban government to tackle hunger, offering thousands of people wheat in exchange for labor, in Dasht-e-Padula of southern Kabul, Oct. 24, 2021.

Foreign countries, including immediate neighbors, have not recognized the Taliban as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan.

The global community wants the hardline group to govern Afghanistan through a broad-based ruling system that represents all Afghan ethnicities, respects human rights, including women’s rights to education and work, and disallows terrorists from using the country for cross-border attacks.

Taliban leaders dismiss criticism of their government, saying it is representative of all Afghans, and women are being given access to education as well as work in accordance with Islamic Sharia law. They also claim no terrorist groups are being allowed to use the country for international attacks, assertions disputed by foreign officials and independent critics.

The Taliban under the previous government had banned females from education and work and harbored the al-Qaida terrorist network blamed for orchestrating the September 2001 attacks on the United States.