Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
92
Ana Cristina Argoti Chamorro
John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
Revista Criterios - 30 (1) January-Juny 2023 Rev. Criterios - pp. 92-110
ISSN: 0121-8670, ISSN Electrónico: 2256-1161
https://doi.org/10.31948/rev.criterios
Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
Main economic measures adopted by
the business sector during the COVID-19
pandemic in Colombia
Ana Cristina Argoti Chamorro
1
John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
2
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
3
To reference this article / Cómo citar este artículo / Para citar este
artigo: Argoti-Chamorro, A. C., Bennett-Muñoz, J. E., & Revelo-Ramírez,
L. G. (2023). Main economic measures adopted by the business sector
during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia. Revista Criterios, 30(1),
92-110. https://doi.org/10.31948/rev.criterios/30.1-art6
Reception date: June 15, 2022
Review date: November 22, 2022
Approval date: December 06, 2022
Abstract
The purpose of this review article is to describe the situation presented in
companies during the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures adopted by
the government to favor their permanence and reactivation and ensure their
function of providing products and employment. In the referential framework
of the research ‘Business Economic Situation in the city of Pasto due to the
COVID-19 pandemic’, it is evident that the economy is going through a crisis that
aects the dynamics of companies and warrants state intervention, by means
of relevant policies to face such situations. It assumes the descriptive method,
through the documentary review of updated sources and published in scientic
and electronic journals. The pertinent information was systematized under a
process that started with the choice of the topic, followed by the determination
of the objective, collection of the bibliography, and development of the argument
until the conclusions.
Although the Colombian government implemented emergency mitigation
measures, some scal to alleviate tax responsibilities, others to provide nancial
leverage and improve the liquidity of companies, as well as labor measures that
became a rst relief against the situation, it is necessary to guarantee their
continuity, as well as improve access for most companies.
Keywords:
Pandemic; lockdown; crisis; government intervention; business
sector.
1
Master’s Degree in Agroindustrial Marketing from Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, Bogotá. Full-time Associate Professor at Universidad
Mariana, Pasto, Nariño, Colombia. E-mail: aargoti@umariana.edu.co - cristinaargoti83@gmail.com.
2
Master’s Degree in Administration and Competitiveness from Universidad Mariana. Full Time Associate Professor at Universidad
Mariana, Pasto, Nariño, Colombia. E-mail: jbennett@umariana.edu.co - johnernesto@hotmail.com.
3
Master’s Degree in Taxation and Fiscal Policy, Universidad de Medellín. Full Time Assistant Professor at the Universidad Mariana, Pasto,
Nariño, Colombia. E-mail: luisgi.revelo@umariana.edu.co - giovanni.revelo20@gmail.com.
Review article, conducted on the frames of reference of the research entitled: Business Economic Situation in the city of Pasto due to
Pandemic COVID-19, developed from June 26, 2021, to January 26, 2023.
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
93
Ana Cristina Argoti Chamorro
John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
Revista Criterios - 30 (1) January-Juny 2023 Rev. Criterios - pp. 92-110
ISSN: 0121-8670, ISSN Electrónico: 2256-1161
https://doi.org/10.31948/rev.criterios
Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
Principales medidas económicas adoptadas
por el sector empresarial durante la
pandemia por COVID-19 en Colombia
Resumen
El propósito de este artículo de revisión es describir la situación presentada en
las empresas durante la pandemia por COVID-19 y las medidas adoptadas por
el gobierno, para favorecer su permanencia, reactivación y asegurar su función
de proveer productos y empleo. En el marco referencial de la investigación
‘Situación Económica Empresarial en la ciudad de Pasto por pandemia COVID-19’
se evidencia que, la economía atraviesa por una crisis que afecta la dinámica
de las empresas y amerita la intervención estatal mediante políticas pertinentes
para enfrentar dichas situaciones. Se asume el método descriptivo, a través de la
revisión documental de fuentes actualizadas y publicadas en revistas cientícas
y electrónicas. La información pertinente se sistematizó bajo un proceso que
arrancó con la elección del tema, la determinación del objetivo, el acopio de
bibliografía y el desarrollo del argumento hasta las conclusiones.
Se observa que, el gobierno colombiano implementó medidas de mitigación de
la emergencia, algunas scales, para aliviar las responsabilidades tributarias;
otras, para proporcionar apalancamiento nanciero y mejorar la liquidez de
las empresas, así como también, medidas laborales que se convirtieron en un
primer alivio frente a la situación, pero se requiere garantizar la continuidad de
las mismas y, mejorar el acceso para la mayoría de las empresas.
Palabras clave:
pandemia; connamiento; crisis; intervención gubernamental;
sector empresarial.
Principais medidas econômicas adotadas
pelo setor empresarial durante a pandemia
de COVID-19 na Colômbia
Resumo
O objetivo deste artigo de revisão é descrever a situação apresentada nas
empresas durante a pandemia de COVID-19 e as medidas adotadas pelo
governo, para favorecer sua permanência, reativação e assegurar sua função
de fornecimento de produtos e emprego. No quadro referencial da pesquisa
‘Situação Econômica Empresarial na cidade de Pasto devido à pandemia de
COVID-19’ ca evidente que a economia atravessa uma crise que afeta a
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
94
Ana Cristina Argoti Chamorro
John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
Revista Criterios - 30 (1) January-Juny 2023 Rev. Criterios - pp. 92-110
ISSN: 0121-8670, ISSN Electrónico: 2256-1161
https://doi.org/10.31948/rev.criterios
Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
dinâmica das empresas e justica a intervenção do Estado, por meio de políticas
relevantes para enfrentar tais situações. Assume o método descritivo, através da
revisão documental de fontes atualizadas e publicadas em revistas cientícas e
eletrónicas. A informação pertinente foi sistematizada ao abrigo de um processo
que começou com a escolha do tema, seguindo-se a determinação do objetivo,
recolha de bibliograa e desenvolvimento da argumentação até às conclusões.
O governo colombiano implementou medidas emergenciais de mitigação,
algumas scais para aliviar as responsabilidades tributárias, outras para
proporcionar alavancagem nanceira e melhorar a liquidez das empresas, bem
como medidas trabalhistas que se tornaram um primeiro alívio diante da situação,
mas é necessário garantir sua continuidade, bem como melhorar o acesso para
a maioria das empresas.
Palavras-chave: pandemia; connamento; crise; intervenção governamental;
setor de negócios.
Introduction
This article has as input, the reference
framework of the research entitled Business
Economic Situation in San Juan de Pasto by
COVID-19 pandemic, which made it possible to
show that the economy went through a crisis
generated by the virus, where the mandatory
preventive connement led to state intervention
through policies to cope with the situation.
The issue is important for the business sector
of Pasto because, although the Colombian
government implemented measures to mitigate
the pandemic, many of them could not be
adopted by businessmen and businesswomen,
either due to lack of knowledge or diculty in
accessing them; however, they represented
alternatives and opportunities for sustainability
to ensure, in some way, the survival of
businesses and regional economic dynamics.
The interest of governments worldwide was
to protect the lives of citizens, but also to
reactivate the economy, two aspects that
were at odds during the pandemic situation,
because what helped to preserve the lives
of people, ended up aecting the dynamics
and the economy of companies, which faced
dierent problem scenarios such as those
related to the maintenance of the sta, raw
material supplies, supply, demand, distribution
channels, displacement, installed capacity,
among others. These are the reasons that
support the purpose of the article, in terms
of describing the measures adopted by the
government, to know the alternatives that
entrepreneurs could use to get out of this crisis
in search of a balance that leads to improving
the quality of life adapted to this new reality.
To fulll the purpose, the article assumes the
descriptive method, through the documentary
review of dierent bibliographic sources updated
and consulted in electronic scientic magazines
of wide diusion and, studies that have been
advanced both in private and governmental
entities, from the moment in which the
pandemic situation arises around the world.
These references constitute the background of
the writing that is organized through a logical
process for the development of the argument,
which starts with the presentation of the
context of the pandemic, continues with the
description of the most pressing diculties
of the companies, follows with the measures
adopted by the government to face this reality
and the entrepreneurial initiatives emerged at
this time and ends with the conclusions and
bibliographical references.
It is clear that the public health situation,
epidemic peaks, vaccination coverage, and
restrictions are still a source of uncertainty, and
it is not known up to what point it is possible to
speak of normality and, despite the aid, relief,
and subsidies granted by the government, these
will not be enough to guarantee the sustainability
and reactivation of the economy in the medium
term; therefore, the reections that arise
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
95
Ana Cristina Argoti Chamorro
John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
Revista Criterios - 30 (1) January-Juny 2023 Rev. Criterios - pp. 92-110
ISSN: 0121-8670, ISSN Electrónico: 2256-1161
https://doi.org/10.31948/rev.criterios
Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
and converge in identifying the government’s
measures and proposing alternatives that
allow companies to minimize the risks and
face the crisis, strengthening strategies such
as diversication, the use of technologies,
specialized platforms, teleworking, training of
workers, among others, are important.
Methodology
Through the descriptive method and the
documentary review of dierent secondary
and tertiary sources, represented in scientic
articles, research, and studies related to
the subject of the pandemic, selected from
specialized databases, of high academic
level and reports prepared by the Economic
Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC), the Departamento Administrativo
Nacional de Estadística (DANE) and the
Dirección de Impuestos y Aduanas Nacionales
(DIAN), and, complementing the information
with the regulations issued by the government
to address the situation at dierent municipal,
departmental and national levels, an approach
to reality was achieved, which is analyzed with
the information on the dynamics imposed by
the COVID-19 at the global level.
The search for Internet references was carried
out based on the subject of the article and
the keywords during the period in which
the pandemic began. From the total of the
bibliographic review, 54 references were
selected that are directly related to the topic to
be worked on.
Thus, the article was constructed in a
sequence that started with the choice of the
topic, the denition of the objective, and the
development of the argument, beginning
with the presentation of the general context
of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by the
description of the most pressing diculties of
the companies, continuing with the measures
adopted by the government to face this reality
and the business initiatives that arose at that
time, and ending with the conclusions and
bibliographical references.
General Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The economic situation of countries in the world
goes through dierent stages; some positive,
such as recovery, expansion, and boom, and
others negative, such as recession, depression,
and crisis. Each of them has dierent magnitudes
and durations, giving rise to what is known as
the economic cycle (Pagan, 2020).
The economic cycle depends on multiple factors;
some are internal and directly related to the
performance of macroeconomic indicators,
situations that, in one way or another, are
predictable in the short term; but there are also
exogenous, circumstantial, and unpredictable
variables that aect the normal dynamics of
the economy in general and particularly of
companies, such as natural disasters, internal
and/or external social conicts, epidemics or
pandemics, among others (Posada, 2020).
This is where the situation that occurred in March
2020 takes place when a period described as
one of the most adverse in the world began due
to the appearance of the SARS-CoV-2 virus,
which the World Health Organization (WHO,
2020) called COVID-19 and which forced the
connement and general stoppage of activities,
aecting the business dynamics, going from a
health problem to an economic one of strong
proportions worldwide.
The global context of the pandemic requires
contextualizing the COVID-19 outbreak and its
consequences in the dierent economic, legal,
political, tax, and social spheres. The pandemic
began with a case of pneumonia of unknown
etiology, the epicenter of which was the wild
animal market in Wuhan (China) in late 2019;
most of the workers developed pneumonia with
severe respiratory complications with rapid
progression and renal dysfunction, gradually
leading to death. On January 7, 2020, the new
type of coronavirus, designated 2019-CoV by
the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), was identied (WHO, 2020).
The rapid spread of COVID-19 forced the
immediate intervention of all the governments
of the world, through economic policy measures
that generated consequences such as the
interruption of most productive activities, rst
in Asia and then in Europe, North America,
and the rest of the world, and the generalized
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
96
Ana Cristina Argoti Chamorro
John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
Revista Criterios - 30 (1) January-Juny 2023 Rev. Criterios - pp. 92-110
ISSN: 0121-8670, ISSN Electrónico: 2256-1161
https://doi.org/10.31948/rev.criterios
Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
closing of borders, leading the economy to a
process of de-globalization that had not been
contemplated.
In this way, the countries in the world evidenced
that they were not prepared to face a pandemic
of these characteristics, due to the speed of
contagion (Ministerio de Salud de Colombia,
Minsalud, 2020) and the high probability of
demanding Intensive Care Units (ICU) services,
which forced governments to redirect resources
to the health sector and generate solutions in a
small line of management between the economy
and the health of the population in which they
must act to make relevant decisions, where
urgency and forcefulness are major factors to
get out of the emergency (Cortes-Cruz and
Pineda-Arévalo, 2020).
To that extent, recovering economies in the
world:
Reects, beyond improvements in the health
situation, the scal eorts that were made
in 2020 and the sustaining of these stimuli
in 2021 and the following years. In 2020,
advanced economies mobilized $6.3 trillion
in spending and tax relief measures and $5.2
trillion in liquidity instruments, equivalent
to 12.7% and 11.3% of GDP, on average,
to mitigate the economic and social eects
of the pandemic. On the other hand, in
emerging countries, the scal response was
smaller, amounting to only 4 % of GDP in
additional spending and tax relief (ECLAC,
2021, p. 15).
In Colombia, as in the rest of Latin America,
most of the initial cases of coronavirus came
from Spain and the United States; this is
not a coincidence, since these are two of
the countries that host a greater number of
Colombian migrants and with which a dynamic
ow of people is maintained. The spread of the
pandemic is, in part, a consequence of global
mobility, of a model of global interdependence
that at that time was questioned; it was a global
problem, but it was faced locally; therefore,
since the rst case was detected in Colombia
in the rst week of March, a discussion was
opened regarding the measures to be taken.
In addition, the coronavirus crisis in Colombia
advanced amid a sociopolitical imbalance
following massive protests against the
government of President Iván Duque in
November and December 2019. This was
coupled with a poor economic outlook for 2020,
a product of declining oil prices, economic
slowdown, the presence of structural inequality,
and general unrest that revived protests with
greater force in 2021, which generated a
disproportionate impact on some social sectors
(Idrovo et al., 2020).
Thus, the situation took by surprise, indistinctly,
both large cities and intermediate and small
cities, forcing governments to issue mitigation
measures that, as Niño and Guerrero (2020)
state, managed in the rst instance to partially
alleviate the situation, but which, in the medium
and long term, would require a review of their
nancial sustainability.
In the department of Nariño, the rst positive
case occurred on March 24, 2020, in the
municipality of Ipiales. The Mayor of Pasto,
Germán Chamorro, through Decree No. 0189
of March 2020, took extraordinary, strict, and
urgent measures adopted by the Ministerio
de Salud y Protección Social, related to the
containment of COVID-19, among which were:
• The suspension of all types of events with a
capacity of 500 people.
• Order the dierent secretariats to issue
guidelines to adopt preventive measures
and prevent the transmission of COVID-19.
• To adopt, as a transitory action measure to
prevent the risk of contagion and/or spread
of the disease, a curfew from March 16 to 23,
2020, from 10:00 p.m. each day until 5:00
a.m. the following day.
The complexity of this scenario showed the
sensitivity of the world’s economies and, of
course, the powerlessness of governments and
companies to adapt to new situations and face
the harsh threats of the environment, especially
for governments in poor regions and micro,
small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs),
which revealed their weaknesses (Lozano et
al., 2020).
Business diculties caused by the
pandemic
The situation caused by the pandemic took
the world as a whole by surprise, generating a
complex panorama that forced the development
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
97
Ana Cristina Argoti Chamorro
John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
Revista Criterios - 30 (1) January-Juny 2023 Rev. Criterios - pp. 92-110
ISSN: 0121-8670, ISSN Electrónico: 2256-1161
https://doi.org/10.31948/rev.criterios
Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
of the economy in an unprecedented context in
the history of mankind.
In Colombia, the situation was worrisome when
96% of the companies had a drop in sales; 75
% registered a decrease of more than 50% and
82% of the formal companies conrmed that
they could subsist only between one and two
months with their resources (Sánchez, 2022).
Due to the pandemic, the quarantine, and
other measures to contain it, the purchase
and sale of goods were hindered, hitting
incomes, except perhaps in activities
that sought to protect health and ensure
survival, such as those of doctors, hospitals,
and pharmaceutical companies, and the
provision of food. According to DANE, the
most serious labor situation was recorded in
May, when the employed population fell to
17.3 million, 22% less than a year earlier.
Job losses were severe between March and
May when unemployment rose from 12.6%
to 21.4%. (Rodríguez, 2021, p. 255)
Undoubtedly, the pandemic generated a very
complex context for the development of the
economic activities of companies in the world,
but even more so for the productive units in
the city of Pasto, where a large part of the
business universe is made up of MSMEs, which
are vulnerable to the dicult circumstances
caused by the pandemic, because they present
subsistence characteristics represented by
their low level of capital, low absorption of
technology and limited capacity to respond to
the demands of the environment, of course,
without ignoring their signicant contribution to
the regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and
the generation of employment and income for a
considerable number of families in the region.
MSMEs in the municipality of Pasto are present
in three sectors, particularly in the second
one: the transformer, which takes the raw
material and, through appropriate procedures,
transforms it into a nished product, generating
added value in the process (Quintero, 2018).
In this order of ideas, it is important to identify
the diculties that these had to face with the
mandatory preventive connement, because,
the development of their production process
was paralyzed from the supply of raw materials
to the suspension of working days that could
not be assumed virtually and that necessarily
required the physical presence of the workers
to operate the equipment, execute the due
productive processes and achieve the nished
product. Thus, among the main diculties
reported by the companies, the following can
be mentioned:
• Liquidity problems: the mandatory
preventive connement generated diculties
in maintaining a cash ow that would
guarantee supply purchases, payments, and
compliance with the companies’ obligations
in the short and medium term.
• Diculties in acquiring credit: the crisis
faced by MSMEs made it dicult to meet the
conditions for accessing nancial leverage
as an alternative for survival at this time,
making it impossible for companies to do
timely payments and meet their obligations
to suppliers, internal customers (workers)
and external customers.
This is why nancing became a response
measure to the emergency experienced by
COVID-19 in most countries in the world and,
of course, in Latin American countries where,
according to ECLAC (2021), nine countries in
the region, such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama,
and Uruguay, expressed their need for capital
to face the situation, which is why they adopted
nancing measures that included special lines
of credit and public guarantee coverage.
In the framework of the implementation
of these nancing strategies, two common
points can be highlighted in general terms:
the relaxation of access requirements and
the formulation of dierentiated strategies,
according to local realities, to expand the
coverage of beneciaries. However, most of
the countries share the fact that, although the
measures were implemented at the national
level, they were heavily concentrated in the
central regions and/or regions with higher
levels of economic growth, so it is necessary
to advance in more inclusive policies that also
reach the peripheral regions.
• Obstacles to the normal development
of production processes, with diculties
in the supply of raw materials and inputs,
as well as in the normal development of
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
98
Ana Cristina Argoti Chamorro
John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
Revista Criterios - 30 (1) January-Juny 2023 Rev. Criterios - pp. 92-110
ISSN: 0121-8670, ISSN Electrónico: 2256-1161
https://doi.org/10.31948/rev.criterios
Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
production processes, distribution, and/or
sale of nished products.
• Problems related to international
trade: the world experienced a situation
of de-globalization in which each country
closed in on its borders to try to prevent
the spread of the virus and this caused
diculties in importing goods and services
and, of course, in selling products on the
world market.
In fact, after many years of booming
internationalization and globalization
policies on the planet, a period of receding
interdependence between nations began,
in defense of their sovereignty, leading to
protectionism and border closures, which
reduced trade and nancial transactions in the
world, a situation that was enhanced by the
arrival of the pandemic (Ramírez-Montañez &
Sarmiento, 2020).
• Diculties in the preservation and
protection of employment: massive layos,
company bankruptcies, suspension of
salary payments and reduction of salaries
and working hours, and the implementation
of new ways to develop labor activities
(ECLAC, 2020).
Another problem was maintaining the health
security of customers, suppliers, and workers,
who had to enter into relationships in dierent
ways for individuals and companies to survive.
The severe pandemic crisis sometimes found a
way out, changing the business model, serving
a large number of consumers, and delivering
greater value to its customers, while trying to
reduce costs.
It is evident that this reality generated a series
of economic eects on companies, but the most
sensitive diculty was related to employment
and, particularly, to wages, which constitute
one of the components of national income. It
should be considered that a signicant part
of the world’s population depends solely and
exclusively on wages to satisfy their human
needs since they do not own property over any
of the other factors of production; that is, they
do not own land, capital, money or companies,
and depend solely on their wages (Salvador-
Morens et al., 2021).
With the crisis caused by the coronavirus,
almost all employees were aected in dierent
ways, having to work under unusual conditions,
changing their work shifts, protocols, and
equipment, and having, in most cases, to
adopt telework as the only work modality
during the connement and border closures.
They also changed working hours, types of
hiring, salaries, and the whole organization of
employment conditions in general.
Under this scenario, teleworking became
the strategy that allowed to preserve some
jobs and even reduce and eliminate some
indirect manufacturing costs, such as leases,
depreciation of xed assets, and payment of
utilities, among others. Although it is true that
in Ecuador, some European countries, and the
United States, telework had already been used
in some special cases, such as with pregnant
women, and disabled people, among others,
during the pandemic this alternative became
widespread in the labor market worldwide
(García-Rubio et al., 2021).
Therefore, although the labor panorama
changed signicantly, the world’s economic
reactivation depended to a large extent on
the performance of workers; so, the ability
of countries to recover more quickly from the
depression was in the hands of the behavior of
the labor market, a dicult situation to handle,
because the pandemic demonstrated that
everything that favors the health of humanity
harms the economy, and vice versa.
Consequently, it was necessary to generate
favorable conditions for workers, especially
when for many of them and their families,
salaries were -and are- the only source of
support, as in the case of Pasto; and, if on
rare occasions what they earn is sucient, it
is even worse in crisis conditions; then, it was
important to formulate strategies to help them
achieve satisfaction in their work performance.
Wages represent for businessmen a production
cost that was intended to be reduced,
given the circumstances in the companies
surviving COVID-19, to face the crisis and,
since employment is the factor capable of
preventing a nation from falling into a poverty
trap, the government’s economic policy had
to be fundamentally directed towards the
labor market, seeking to preserve jobs and
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
99
Ana Cristina Argoti Chamorro
John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
Revista Criterios - 30 (1) January-Juny 2023 Rev. Criterios - pp. 92-110
ISSN: 0121-8670, ISSN Electrónico: 2256-1161
https://doi.org/10.31948/rev.criterios
Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
wages, especially in MSMEs, which are more
vulnerable to the situation. These policies had
to be accompanied by the eort of businessmen
to increase investment levels to reduce
unemployment and preserve the purchasing
power of their workers’ wages, situations that
benet the economy as a whole in the medium
term (Jiménez-Bandala et al., 2020).
As a result, many companies went bankrupt
and others threatened to close, a complicated
situation for the economy:
The closure of companies destroys
entrepreneurial know-how and localized
physical capital, as well as entire productive
chains and payment ow circuits. The
impossibility of economic agents to adapt
to sudden changes in the environment has
harmful eects that sometimes continue over
time, beyond the crisis, thus prolonging its
negative consequences. (ECLAC, 2020, p. 8)
Measures adopted by the government to
address COVID-19
The context of the pandemic required
governments worldwide to implement
provisions to address and alleviate, in part, the
dicult situation that was occurring de facto,
but that threatened to settle in countries for a
period that would lead to a deep economic crisis
if appropriate action was not taken, which is
why the governments of most countries in the
world, aware of the problem, issued important
measures to address the critical situation.
These general provisions can be grouped into
six categories:
Those related to liquidity: whose essential
objective was to maintain the ow of
payments in the short term by postponing
disbursements and renegotiations. Those
related to credit: to increase the availability
of resources for loans, funds for guarantees,
and easing the conditions of access to them.
Provisions related to direct assistance:
through transfers of funds (subsidies) or
cancellation of obligations, including measures
for formal self-employed workers. Those
related to production support: to promote
the domestic production of essential goods
and services in the emergency, including
public procurement measures. Those related
to international trade: to encourage exports.
Those related to employment protection: to
avoid massive layos; they refer to wage
subsidies and employer contributions, wage
suspension and reduction of working hours,
and labor exibilization (ECLAC, 2020, p. 9)
Specically, regarding the legal measures
implemented in Colombia as a consequence
of the pandemic, assistance was agreed upon
for large, medium, and small companies,
and for individuals in general, to reduce the
socioeconomic eects brought about by this
disease.
Among the main provisions issued and/or,
related to times of exception, we can mention, in
the rst place, those stipulated long before the
pandemic, for the regulation of the Colombian
economy, such as Article 338 of the Colombian
Political Constitution which determines that,
In times of peace, only the Congress, the
departmental assemblies, and the district
and municipal councils may impose scal or
parascal contributions. The law, ordinances,
and agreements must x, directly, the
active and passive subjects, the facts and
taxable bases, and the rates of the taxes;
they may allow the authorities to x the rate
of the fees and contributions they charge
to the taxpayers, as the recovery of the
costs of the services they render to them
or participate in the benets they provide
them, but the system and method to dene
such things and benets, and the way to
make their distribution, must be xed by
the same ordinances. (Constitución Política
de Colombia, 1991)
Using this article, the constitution intended to
grant powers to the corporations according
to their jurisdiction, so that they could create
taxes within their region, clearly dening the
facts that generate the collection and the rates
thereof. For the taxpayers who must pay the
taxes or fees to be created, Congress will create
the laws, and, their eld of application will be the
entire national territory, the ordinances at the
level of the departments, and the agreements
to be applied within the municipalities. This
provision must be handled with tact, since
among the problems caused by tax reform
in dicult times such as the pandemic, are
the protests and successive strikes that bring
serious consequences to the national economy.
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
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John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
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Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
On the other hand, Law 550 of 1999 establishes
policies that promote and facilitate the
business reactivation and the restructuring
of the territorial entities, to guarantee the
social function of the companies and achieve
the harmonic development of the regions;
therefore, it is the duty of the State to promote
policies that lead companies, in dicult times
such as the one mentioned, to achieve their
reactivation and their permanence in the
market. Secondly, there are the provisions
issued during the pandemic, such as:
• Resolution 385 of March 12, 2020, issuing
the declaration of a sanitary emergency due
to the coronavirus.
• Decree 417 of March 17, 2020, in which
the President declares a state of economic,
social, and ecological emergency throughout
the national territory for a term of 30
calendar days, counted from the eective
date thereof.
Henceforth, the national government continues
to issue regulations, extending the isolation
measures for the protection of the health of
Colombians, until the sanitary emergency is
overcome. Among these measures are decrees
457 of March 24, 531 of April 8, 536 of April 11,
and 637, all issued during 2020.
In Resolution 666 of April 24, 2020, together
with Decree 536, the progressive and
responsible reactivation of some sectors of
the economy was determined, having as a
priority, the safeguarding of life and, in this
sense, the restoration of productive life would
be presented.
The great challenge for governments worldwide
and, of course, for Colombia, was to safeguard
the lives of citizens and, at the same time,
to reactivate the economy, two aspects that,
given the situation, were at odds with each
other, since what helped to preserve the lives
of people ended up aecting the economy and
the dynamics of companies.
Therefore, for the initial reactivation, eight
sectors of the manufacturing industry
were considered, which were able to start
their activities as of April 27 gradually and
progressively, taking into account biosafety
protocols for all company personnel and the
permanent monitoring of symptoms. It was left
under the responsibility of the mayors to ensure
compliance with the protocols and gauging.
The sectors that beneted at that time were
the following:
• Manufacture of textile products.
• Manufacture of clothing.
• Leather products.
• Wood transformation.
• Manufacture of paper, cardboard, and
products derived from them.
• Manufacture of chemical substances and
products.
• Manufacture of metal products.
• Manufacture of electrical appliances and
equipment.
On May 6, 2020, the national government
announced a new economic emergency in the
country, to be able to respond to the eects
derived from COVID-19; thus, to maintain and/
or recover the economic sector in the country, it
implemented programs and projects, including
the Formal Employment Support Program
which sought to provide a monthly subsidy
to formal entrepreneurs to pay the payroll, at
40% of the minimum wage per worker. This
should ultimately benet workers and private
employees (Gómez, 2020).
In the same way, the ‘Ingreso Solidario’ program
was constituted as a mechanism to deliver “a
monetary transfer in favor of households in
a situation of poverty and vulnerability, who
are not beneciaries of state social programs”
(Farne et al., 2017, p. 101).
For private sector workers earning a legal
minimum monthly salary in force, on May 27,
2020, the government made a contribution that
was part of the premium corresponding to June
2020. Likewise, it was applied to employees
with nancial diculties that had decreased up
to 20% of their income. It was also announced
that the allowance to cancel the June bonus
would be extended to workers with minimum
salaries of up to one million.
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
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John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
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Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
Law 2069 of December 31, 2020, was intended
to promote entrepreneurship in Colombia; its
purpose is to determine a regulatory framework
for entrepreneurship, growth, consolidation,
and sustainability of companies, to increase
social welfare and generate equity.
All these measures constituted a rst relief for
the dicult situation, but it is also important
to mention some scal provisions that concern
the companies, including the Service Provider
Institutions (IPS, by its Spanish acronym),
since they also belong to the private sector:
• Decree 435 of 2020, modifying deadlines
for ling and payment of tax returns.
• Decree 520 of 2020, which extended the
deadline for ling and paying income tax
installments for the taxable year 2019,
remaining as follows:
- Large taxpayers: payment of the second
installment from April 21 to May 5 and
payment of the third installment and ling
of the return from June 9 to June 24.
- Legal entities: payment of the rst
installment from April 21st to May 5th
and payment of the second installment
and ling of the return from June 1
st
to
July 1
st
.
• Decree 655 of May 13, 2020, which allowed
a special term for the ling and payment of
the income tax return for the taxable year
2019 of MSMEs classied by Decree 1074
of 2015. This term was contemplated from
November 9 to December 7, 2020.
This modication of deadlines (Resolution 27 of
March 5, 2020) gave a cash breathing space
to large companies, postponing the payment of
their taxes for about one month; MSMEs were
granted a term of six months, providing them
with liquidity leverage, making up, in part, for
the lack of revenue collection to cover xed
costs due to the paralysis of the economy.
The resolution facilitated compliance with tax
responsibilities, since the ling of the tax return
was moved to the last payment date and not,
as is normally done, to the beginning of the
payment of the installments. In addition to
this, with Resolution 46 of May 7, 2020, the
deadline for ling exogenous information was
also extended, which was as follows: -large
taxpayers, from June 09 to June 24, and,
legal entities, from June 01 to July 01. These
measures were issued to facilitate compliance
with tax obligations, since the preparation
of the information is quite time-consuming,
considering that, with the sanitary provisions,
this work must be done at home.
• Decree 492 of 2020, which establishes
measures for the strengthening of the
Fondo Nacional de Garantías and dictates
provisions regarding resources within the
framework of the economic, social, and
ecological emergency.
• Resolutions 22 of March 18, 30 of March 29,
and 31 of April 3, 2020, in which the terms
of the administrative and jurisdictional
proceedings in administrative headquarters
are suspended during the validity of the
sanitary emergency, initially declared until
May 31, 2020, according to Resolution 385
of March 12, 2020, of Ministerio de Salud,
extended until August 31, 2020, with
Resolution 844 of May 26, 2020.
This suspension refers to the terms of expiration,
prescription, or nality contemplated in
the tax legislation. It should be noted that
this suspension of terms did not apply to
the compliance of obligations regarding the
ling and payment of tax returns, refunds,
compensations, and payment facilities, among
others. These provisions sought to extend the
time and ensure due process in the course of
investigations and tax proceedings executed by
the DIAN.
• Decree 688 of May 22, 2020, which oers
the possibility of abbreviated payments and
proposes payment facilities on taxes owed
on returns led between April 1, 2020, and
July 31, 2020, which could be deferred in up
to twelve monthly installments without the
need for a guarantee and would be studied
and approved in a term not exceeding 15
days; these facilities could be requested
until August 6, 2020.
This measure was intended to nance both
the payment of taxes that due to lack of
liquidity and the pandemic had stagnated the
economy, as well as to encourage the culture of
compliance and payment of taxes, despite the
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
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John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
Revista Criterios - 30 (1) January-Juny 2023 Rev. Criterios - pp. 92-110
ISSN: 0121-8670, ISSN Electrónico: 2256-1161
https://doi.org/10.31948/rev.criterios
Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
economic diculties. Another relief with this decree was the reduction of the moratorium interest
rate on taxes owed, reducing the usury interest rate to the current bank interest rate for ordinary
consumer credit, until November 30, 2020.
• Decree 682 of 2020 was a measure that caused quite an impact for both companies and consumers,
due to the VAT exemption contemplated therein, to give a boost to economic reactivation, so
that, initially, three dates were set without VAT, for specic goods, as contemplated in Table 1.
Table 1
Goods covered by VAT exemption
Asset Maximum value per unit
Clothing Less than or equal to 20 TVU without VAT ($ 712.140)
Wardrobe complements Less than or equal to 20 TVU without VAT ($ 712.140)
Household appliances Less than or equal to 80 TVU without VAT ($2.848.560)
Sports equipment Less than or equal to 80 TVU without VAT ($2.848.560)
Toys and games Less than or equal to 10 TVU without VAT ($ 356.070)
School supplies Less than or equal to 5 TVU without VAT ($178.035)
Agricultural goods and supplies Less than or equal to 80 TVU without VAT ($2.848.560)
TVU 2020: $35.607
Source: based on Decree 682 of May 21, 2020.
Another important provision for lessees concerning VAT, contemplated in the same Decree 682
of 2020, consisted in reducing the tax burden of the businesses most aected by the sanitary
measures, for which the lease of commercial premises that had been totally or partially closed
to the public for more than two weeks was excluded from VAT until July 31, 2020. This relief was
signicant, considering that tenants had to pay these fees for several months without being able
to open their premises and, therefore, without receiving income due to the restrictions imposed by
the pandemic.
• Decree 560 of April 15, 2020: claries that no withholding tax for income tax purposes will be
made until December 31, 2020, for companies admitted in corporate reorganization processes
or that are executing reorganization agreements entered into under the Insolvency Law (Law
1116, 2006). This measure, although it was not an income tax reduction, at least allowed
to have a cash ow in the companies, preventing the immobilization of money due to the
withholding tax to the seller.
• Decree 530 of April 08, 2020, which excludes from VAT in the transfer for the free title (donation)
for the goods destined to the attention of the causes of the sanitary and economic emergency
generated by COVID-19, according to which, they are:
- Goods for human or animal consumption.
- Clothing.
- Construction materials.
- Medical devices.
- Toiletries.
- Medicines for human or veterinary use.
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
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Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
In addition, the rate of the national
consumption tax (NCT) on food and beverage
services is reduced to 0% until December
31, 2020, alleviating the tax burden in these
sectors, which have been severely aected by
connement measures.
• Decree 568 of April 15, 2020, which created
the solidarity tax, to obtain revenues for
the State, to compensate for the decrease
in collection originating from the dierent
measures taken to alleviate the tax burden
of the economic sectors most aected by
the sanitary measures adopted due to the
eect of COVID-19 and to cover the social
public expenditure required to attend to the
vulnerable population.
The taxable base of the tax was the payments
or credits to accounts over ten million pesos
($10,000,000), made to the providers of
services to the State, public servants, and
beneciaries of mega pensions, who did not
belong to the health sector, and the public
force; the rate would be staggered from 15%
to 20%, according to the value of the payment
or credit to the account made.
Thus, the government decided to face the dicult
situation with scal policy, but the monetary
authority of each country, in our case Banco de
la República, had to accompany the economic
recovery with an adequate level of liquidity that
would allow sustaining the monetary uidity of
companies and the recovery of global demand,
without causing inationary pressures.
As the policy instruments should be oriented
towards the most vulnerable sectors, which
are those that concentrate the largest number
of jobs, support through soft credit lines,
adequate and gradual tax reforms that would
allow a scal and monetary policy in line with
the economic recovery, was indispensable.
If we observe the behavior of the Colombian
economy in mid-2020, unemployment
presented its most critical situation, where the
employed population dropped to 17.3 million,
increasing the unemployment rate from 12.6%
to 21.4%; in addition, due to the connement,
many Colombians stopped looking for jobs,
increasing the economically inactive population
and further aggravating the labor market
scenario (Rodríguez, 2021). These reasons led
the government to issue provisions to favor
the labor market; among them, it is worth
mentioning:
• Decree 488 of March 27, 2020, which aims
to promote the preservation of employment
and provide alternatives to workers and
employers within the economic, social,
and ecological emergency declared by the
government, to facilitate the procedures so
that they can withdraw their severance and
cover, in some way, the reduction of their
income, grant vacation period for some
while overcoming the health emergency and
generate benets related to the protection
of the unemployed.
• Decree 558 of April 15, 2020, also represented
temporary relief for pensioners, by reducing
their contribution to the General Pension
System for some time, to provide greater
liquidity to dependent and independent
employees and employers. By having more
cash available through this reduction, it
was intended to protect the consumption
of the families of the pensioners and the
investment of the companies that employ
this population group.
• Decree 582 of April 16, 2020, which
implemented measures to protect the
rights of pensioners and beneciaries of
the Servicio Social Complementario de
Benecios Económicos Periódicos (BEPS)
and beneciaries of the Programa de
Subsidio al Aporte a Pensión, regulations
aimed at one of the population segments
most aected during the health emergency.
For the servers of the Instituto Nacional de Salud,
the recognition of the payment of overtime,
Sundays, and holidays was authorized, through
Decree 611 of April 30, 2020, to encourage
their work during the dicult situation they
were going through. Recognition would improve
the provision of the service for society and
the economic situation of the families of the
providers of this service.
It is also worth highlighting Decree 639 of
May 8, 2020, which creates the Programa de
Apoyo al Empleo Formal, as a State social
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
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Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
program that grants the beneciary a monthly
monetary contribution to support and protect
formal employment in the country during the
pandemic.
In addition to all these measures, it is expected
that the government, in the medium term, will
legislate on transformation processes in the
labor market, making room for exible working
hours, dierent types of hiring, job stability,
acceleration of teleworking and digitization,
to avoid the precariousness of employment,
as it is currently lived, where the worker has
had to bear the costs of connection, electricity,
computer equipment, worryingly combining
their personal and family spaces.
Thus, although the poor employment
conditions in most countries are a structural
problem, the improvement of their conditions
and the reduction of informality make the
economies less vulnerable to unexpected
events such as the pandemic (Jiménez-Bandala
et al., 2020). However, the responsibility for
economic reactivation does not fall solely
on the government but must be shared with
companies, because the situation calls for a
sustained increase in productivity, productive
chaining, and the generation and dissemination
of innovations that result in the diversication
of the productive structure, which guarantee
a continuous and stable process of economic
growth (ECLAC, 2020).
It was possible to show that, although the
government responded appropriately by
regulating provisions of all kinds to face the
pandemic, these were insucient, given the
seriousness of the situation. And, if we add to
this the diculties that some companies have
in accessing aid, deadlines, and aid in general,
this becomes an even more complex situation,
from whose legal framework it is necessary to
determine, through investigative processes, the
eectiveness in the implementation of these
relief measures. This problem becomes even
more interesting when one thinks about the
sustainability of all these provisions over time,
which guarantee a progressive line of recovery
for the base companies of the entire economy.
Similarly, it is disturbing to think about how
the Colombian government will generate the
tax revenue required to oset the high public
spending, without suocating society with taxes
that end up further reducing the rate of growth
or, with greater public debt that increases the
country’s economic and political dependence
on its creditors.
Business Initiatives to face the Pandemic
Without a doubt, COVID-19 has aected the real
economy in all countries of the world, impacting
aggregate demand and supply, nancial
markets, trade, and tourism, as a consequence
of the imposition of restrictions everywhere.
Therefore, coordination and solidarity among
all States are urgent, to propose economic
measures that reduce the impact of the crisis
and continue to promote the growth of sectors
that beneted, such as the case of services
derived from information and communication
technologies (ICT) (Cifuentes-Faura, 2020).
Consequently, the economic recovery after the
mandatory preventive connement caused by
this pandemic will require the joint eort of
the government, the business sector, and civil
society, to return to investment levels that
guarantee the improvement of employment
and income of the collectivity.
The government has fullled its role with the
implementation of pertinent economic policies
to face the situation of the crisis; citizens,
for their part, have participated in complying
with biosafety measures in their homes and
workplaces and in adapting to the new normality
in dierent environments, including work.
However, companies are required, within their
strategic planning, to adopt measures to face
crises, such as the one caused by the pandemic,
which help their nancial sustainability and
guarantee their permanence in the market.
Within these strategies, it is vital to consider
marketing, by optimizing the use of ICTs,
which had a marked boom during the pandemic
(Medina et al., 2020).
On the side of the companies, initiatives appear
that, in principle, are focused on providing
solutions to the problems associated with the
health crisis, to reinvent themselves and remain
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
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Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
Revista Criterios - 30 (1) January-Juny 2023 Rev. Criterios - pp. 92-110
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Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
active with their productive structure. In this
sense, it is pertinent to mention the ventures
carried out by organizations such as ECLAC
(2020), which became examples of creativity
during the crisis:
• Companies that manufacture alcoholic
beverages, sugar mills, alcohol producers,
manufacture of cosmetics, paints, cleaning
products, the refrigeration industry, and
university laboratories that, due to the low
production of their traditional products,
turned towards the production of gel alcohol.
• The textile and paper and cardboard
manufacturing industries accommodated
their production processes towards the
manufacture of masks and clothing with
anti-uid materials.
• The automotive, plastic, appliance
manufacturing, and 3D printing industries
in technology centers and universities,
machinery, and equipment manufacturers,
redirected towards the production
of protective equipment for health
professionals, such as masks and shields.
• The airlines, bus companies, tobacco
companies, and the beer industry made
their distribution eet and their experience
available to the government for the logistics,
distribution, and transportation of food and
other essential products.
• The construction, metalworking,
metallurgical, hotel, mining, and automotive
industries, towards the manufacture of
structures and hospital infrastructure.
As a matter of fact, all companies had to
quickly adjust to the changes brought about
during the connement, with E-commerce
being one of the main strategies adopted; that
is, the purchase or sale of goods and services
between companies, households, individuals,
governments, and other public and private
organizations through computer-mediated
networks, which allowed the majority to
obtain and distribute the necessary goods and
services, without requiring physical channels
(Rojas, 2021).
Undoubtedly, this entire context of the pandemic
has led to variations in the expectations of
companies, which, to survive and grow, must
give importance to change management
through adaptability and innovation, to obtain
nancial prots in the long term, which is
only possible by accepting and assuming the
social and environmental costs; in other words,
companies must assume their Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR). This should be a strategy
that includes:
• The social consequences of the actions of
companies.
• The environmental or ecological
consequences that arise from the
development of their production processes.
• The economic benet, which is a long-
term, continuous, and comprehensive
process, which is presented as a challenge
that requires comprehensive internal
management (Zanini & Marinelli, 2020).
Zanini and Marinelli (2020) express that the
task is dicult to face in moments of crisis, but
there are multiple reasons to put it into practice
since, today, organizations are evaluated with
something more than their nancial results,
taking into account the intellectual capacities
and social responsibility of the organization,
considering as part of the values of the entity,
the management of human resources, the work
environment, the motivation of the personnel,
communication and a more active role in
the society. In fact -the authors maintain-,
the pandemic required companies, and will
continue to require them, not only to overcome
economic losses and resist the operational
limitations of supplying sick personnel but also
to avoid transferring the cost of the crisis to
their audience of interest; that is, to all the
people or organizations that are related to the
activities and decisions of a company, such as
employees, suppliers, clients, government,
among others.
Finally, it is important to mention a fundamental
pillar that CSR represents, which seeks the well-
being of companies, customers, and employees,
through strategies that allow producing more
with less eort, which is what the economy
Main economic measures adopted by the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia
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John Ernesto Bennett Muñoz
Luis Giovanni Revelo Ramírez
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ISSN: 0121-8670, ISSN Electrónico: 2256-1161
https://doi.org/10.31948/rev.criterios
Universidad Mariana, San Juan de Pasto, Nariño, Colombia.
currently requires, improving the conditions of
human talent to favor the reaction capacity of
companies in the face of external situations,
allowing them to preserve their competitiveness,
the labor well-being of employees and inuences
the reduction of unemployment rates. To
achieve these purposes, the Company-State-
Society triad must be harmonized (Fajardo &
Maranta, 2020).
Conclusions
The economy, in its evolution, goes through
dierent stages or economic cycles that are
sometimes sudden and force companies to adapt
to the new context generated. The crisis caused
by COVID-19 was a problem that showed that
the world in general was not prepared to face
it; much less, regions such as the municipality
of Pasto, which has a very particular economic
dynamic characterized by the strong presence
of MSMEs. This situation inevitably led the
economy to a crisis, impacting all aspects:
political, economic, legal, social, and business,
signicantly aecting companies worldwide
and, in this specic case, the company of Pasto.
In this way, the COVID-19 pandemic brought
with it an innity of health, economic, political,
social, and tax problems, for which both the
government and society, in general, were forced
to seek alternative solutions to minimize each
person’s problem, according to their capacities
and obligations.
MSMEs in the secondary sector in Pasto faced
multiple problematic situations with mandatory
preventive connement, due to diculties in
the supply of raw materials, the suspension of
working hours, liquidity problems, diculties
in acquiring credit, obstacles to the normal
development of production processes, and
problems related to international trade.
In Colombia, as a consequence of the pandemic,
various aids were provided for large, medium,
and small companies and people in general,
to partially reduce the social and, above all,
economic eects that this disease brought
with it. Among the measures, we can mention
those of a tax nature in income tax, VAT,
consumption tax, withholding tax, as well as
provisions related to the extension of time for
the declaration and payment, to alleviate the
tax burden.
Of course, the Colombian State must protect
the lives of the people and the economy of the
region, two aspects that, given the current
situation, are contrary, because what helps
preserve the lives of the people ends up
aecting the economy and business dynamics.
Despite all the aid given by the government, it
is not enough to guarantee the sustainability
and reactivation of the economy in the long
term; hence the importance of a joint eort
between government, business, academia, and
civil society, to generate a process of continuous
and sustainable growth.
On the other hand, within their strategic
planning, companies must adopt measures
to face crises such as the one that originated
with COVID-19, which help their nancial
sustainability and guarantee their permanence
in the market. Within these strategies, it is vital
to consider marketing, and optimizing the use
of ICT, which had a marked boom during the
pandemic.
To conclude, it is necessary to recognize that
the crisis also implies an opportunity, in the
case of employees, to be trained in new forms of
production and marketing, promoting creativity
and resorting to teamwork; and, for companies,
to generate the possibility of reinventing
themselves, exploring new markets, looking for
new clients, while keeping the current ones and
improving the relationship with the community.
Conict of interest
The authors of this article declare not to have
any kind of conict of interest regarding the
work presented.
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Contribution
All the authors participated in the preparation
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