Colombia Uses Emergency Powers to Hike Tax on Banks and the Rich

Colombia’s leftist government said it will use emergency powers to raise taxes on the nation’s richest citizens as well as on the financial services sector.

The government is decreeing an increase on the top wealth tax rate to 5%, from 1.5%, and would also slash the threshold at which it becomes payable to 2 billion pesos ($530,000) from 3.6 billion pesos, President Gustavo Petro said Tuesday, in a national address.

Those figures are unchanged from the rates the government sent in a bill to congress this year, which lawmakers rejected.

The surcharge on financial services company will triple ...