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DS 5503 is the foundational instrument of the Paz administration's economic program, signed within hours of the 17 November 2025 inauguration. The decree exercises the constitutional emergency-decree authority (Art. 172 CPE) and bundles measures across six policy axes:
1. Investment-attraction architecture (Title II–III). Creates a 15-year fiscal-and-legal stability guarantee for projects classified as "strategic" (mining, hydrocarbons, energy, agro-industry, infrastructure, export manufacturing). Establishes a 30-day fast-track approval procedure administered by a newly constituted inter-ministerial investment-review committee. The structure is functionally analogous to Argentina's RIGI (2024-07-08-argentina-rigi-large-investment-incentive-regime) but operates by decree rather than congressional statute.
2. Trade-facilitation tariff measures. Sets the import tariff on industrial machinery, productive equipment and key intermediate inputs to 0% for the duration of 2026, conditional on declared productive use. Accelerated depreciation is granted for fixed-asset acquisitions during the same window — but explicitly excludes extractive mining and hydrocarbons from the depreciation benefit (those sectors get the stability guarantee but not the depreciation accelerator).
3. Tax regularization. Empowers the SIN (Servicio de Impuestos Nacionales) to declare ex-officio the prescription of interest and administrative penalties on tax obligations whose taxable events occurred on or before 31 October 2025 — a one-time write-off intended to bring informal and arrears taxpayers back into the system. Codified in Resolución Normativa de Directorio Nº 102500000052.
4. Fuel-subsidy unwind. Final-consumer prices for gasoline, diesel, derivatives and GNV are frozen for 6 months while a price-adjustment methodology is developed; after the freeze, prices will be adjusted to eliminate the subsidy. This is the headline macro measure: Bolivia's fuel-subsidy bill ran to roughly USD 2.5–3 bn/year and was the principal driver of FX-reserve depletion under the Arce administration.
5. Social-protection package. National Minimum Wage raised to Bs 3,300 from 2 January 2026 (+20%); Renta Dignidad pension lifted by Bs 150 to Bs 500; new extraordinary cash-transfer program (PEPE) for vulnerable families up to 12 months. These offset the political cost of the fuel- subsidy unwind.
6. Energy-sector emergency. Article block authorizing emergency direct contracting (no public tender) for liquid-fuel imports and electricity- sector emergency operations through end-2026.
pre-condition the Chinese (CBC) and Russian (Uranium One) consortia have been waiting on; the YLB-CBC contract (2024-11-26 in register) was Plurinational-Assembly-blocked under Arce in part because no such guarantee existed. Watch for CBC contract resubmission to Asamblea in Q1 2026.
untouched — this is an investment-attraction layer, not a fiscal-take rewrite. Pairs with rather than replaces the existing royalty law.
Bolivia has attempted in two decades. The 6-month price freeze is a political bridge; the subsidy elimination is the structural reform.
challenging DS 5503 on constitutional grounds (delegation-of-legislative- power doctrine). Any TCP ruling against the decree would force migration of provisions to congressional law, with corresponding political risk.
project, or is it sectoral by default? (Material for downstream investor-eligibility analysis.)
— without it, the headline timeline is non-operational.