At the meeting, the payment of VAT for all services offered by the Network institutions and the problems that have been generated in applications for public funds available to regional governments were also discussed.
This Wednesday, June 26, at the Diego Portales University (UDP) and in the context of the monthly meetings of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH), the board of directors of the Network of Non-State Public Universities G9 met with the Undersecretary of Higher Education, Víctor Orellana; and the head of the University Education Division, Elisa Zenteno; to continue advancing with the work agenda for this year. The rector of the Universidad Católica del Norte (UCN), Dr. Rodrigo Alda Varas, was present at the meeting.
In a hybrid session, led by the first vice president, rector Juan Yuz, of the Federico Santa María Technical University (USM), the rectors and the academic vice-rector PUCV and deputy rector, Claudia Mejía, of the G9 Network, expressed their concerns regarding the recovery of the historical gloss for the institutions that make up the network, the payment of VAT for all services offered by the G9 Universities, and the problems that have been generated for the study houses of the group from the applications for funds public available for regional governments.
The rector of the USM, Dr. Juan Yuz, positively evaluated the instance of dialogue held with the Undersecretary of Higher Education and emphasized that the network always appreciates the disposition of Undersecretary Orellana “to express our concerns to him firsthand and he, for his part, to tell us directly about the efforts that the undersecretariat and the ministry are taking in this regard”. He added that “The Undersecretary of Higher Education gave us some certainties in the preparation of the 2025 budget and, although we still have some issues to resolve to have greater details, we see that there are opportunities to continue working on the recovery of the historical gloss. Now, regarding the issue of VAT, new information and work opportunities emerged that could be added to the actions that we already have scheduled in this matter, since we will soon meet with the Internal Revenue Service and Comptroller’s Office.”.
For his part, the Undersecretary of Higher Education, Víctor Orellana, said that “In the context of the modernization process that we are carrying out, we discussed matters related to the reorganization of financing. The G9 is made up of institutions that are rooted in our social fabric, therefore, and for historical reasons, they receive institutional contributions. What we have wanted to do is take these institutional contributions, first to the 21st century, modernizing them, and we are also working on the recovery of different elements that these institutional contributions had historically, which the previous government decided to modify and we have discussed the progress in that matter.”.
Asked about the rectors’ concerns regarding the payment of VAT, which materialized on January 1, 2023 in accordance with Law 21,094, the Undersecretary of Higher Education commented that “The tax extension that some State universities have has already been a matter of discussion and what we have proposed to the rectors is the willingness to study regulatory modifications in this matter that naturally have to be discussed with different levels of the Government, which are the that regulate. From the undersecretary we are in a position to study and collaborate in the search for a solution that satisfies these expectations, given that the Higher Education institutions of the G9 Network are non-profit, are traditionally rooted in our territories, and play an important role in society and have favored the cultural and social life of our regions. Therefore, it seems to us that on that basis we can work on a proposal.”.
