Harbey Ramírez, commander of the Yopal Fire Department, referred to the problem of lack of resources to provide ambulance service and attend to emergencies.
According to Ramírez, by law resources from the firefighter surtax cannot be used to provide ambulance services; In addition, he is concerned about the projection of a decrease in the surcharge, where they aspired to a rate of 9%, provided for organizations with taxable income greater than one billion pesos, which he points out were not accepted by the council.
From the Fire Department they regretted the situation that is presented and are in search of resources that allow them to support the personnel and the ambulance equipment, in order to guarantee support for the Emergency and Emergency Regulatory Center – CRUE.
For his part, Councilman Fabio Suárez respectfully asked the Fire Commander not to attribute the situation to the non-authorization by the Mayor’s Office and the Council of charging the fire surcharge to large taxpayers.
According to councilman Suárez, Bomberos Yopal has a very robust budget that allows it to provide the service, since after the reform of the income statute in 2013, the relief agency was strengthened, receiving annually a little more than 2 billion of pesos for sale of services.
Statements by the Commander of the Fire Brigade Harbey Ramírez, regarding the non-provision of the ambulance service.
Note: The projection carried out by the Fire Department and the Municipal Health Department revealed that sustaining three ambulances with three crews, working 8-hour shifts and with all the labor guarantees, costs one billion pesos per year.
Source: news – HOLA Casanare