Venezuela’s new economic measures decreed on Wednesday by President Nicolas Maduro include a reform of corporate tax law, with a 34 to 40% increase of tax collection on the country’s largest corporations; a change in the way financial transactions are made in order to avoid tax evasion and the hiding of profits by big business; the implementation of a new foreign exchange system with penalties for unofficial exchange and the allocation of US dollars to companies based on need; a mine development plan with a provision for mixed public-private enterprises; and the development of the nation’s petrochemical industry with an eye to attracting foreign currency and technology. teleSUR
