Colombia. President Juan Manuel Santos announced measures for the technological strengthening of the country, including the creation of the Vice Ministry of Digital Economy, the implementation of Digital Citizen Services, the granting of tax benefits for cloud services, and the regulation of the VAT exclusion for the creation of digital content of the orange economy, that will constitute the new tools to promote the new digital economy.
The information technology industry is a major driver of the economy. Last year sales amounted to $13.4 billion and a kind of centers of finance, energy, industry, digital content are being created, which generates more competitiveness.
In this sense, the VAT exception for virtual education services for the development of digital content was regulated, as well as the acquisition of software licenses for the commercial development of the same, the maintenance service in the cloud and all related ones.
What is sought with this standard is to support the Digital Creative Industries, content developers, video games, animations, eBooks, applications, among others. That is why the main inputs that the developer needs, such as training and software, are excluded from the tax.
The Head of State also announced that a Bill will be presented that will seek the creation of a Convergent Regulator, with the merger of the National Television Authority (ANTV) and the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), under the current structure of the latter.
