7012, on the creation of the Golfito commercial free zone (depósito libre comercial de Golfito), of November 4, 1985, are hereby reformed. The text shall read:
"Article 11.- The tax established in Article 6 of this Law shall be collected through the Central Bank of Costa Rica or its auxiliary offices, when processing the customs clearance form (póliza de desalmacenaje) at customs regarding imports, and with respect to nationally manufactured products, when the manufacturer prepares the invoice. This tax shall be transferred directly in favor of the Board, once the sums corresponding to it for bank commission have been deducted.
The Ministry of Finance shall exercise the powers of oversight and verification, both in tax and customs matters, regarding the entry, permanence and destination of the goods. For the aforementioned purposes, the Board is authorized to enter into an agreement with the Ministry of Finance, in order to coordinate and facilitate the tax and customs functions, and to determine the annual sums that it will transfer to cover the cost of the tasks under the responsibility of the cited Ministry.
The entirety of the tax generated shall be administered and distributed by the Board, which shall allocate the resources to the financing of regional and local development projects, presented by constituted organizations with duly registered legal capacity (personería jurídica), including the municipalities of the cantons of Golfito, Osa, Corredores, Coto Brus and Buenos Aires.
Prior to the disbursement of resources in favor of the Board to execute the cited development projects, the Board must certify the suitability of the non-governmental entities that meet the requirements to administer public funds, as provided by the regulations issued by the Comptroller General of the Republic.
The resources shall be used to finance productive and service projects, to execute infrastructure works, health programs, education, technical training and projects of social interest in favor of the most vulnerable groups of the cantons of Golfito, Osa, Corredores, Coto Brus and Buenos Aires.
For the above purposes, the following resource distribution criterion shall be applied:
- a)Up to eight percent (8%) of the net income, after deducting bank commissions and payment to the Ministry of Finance, in the terms of the second paragraph of this article, shall be allocated to operating and functioning expenses of the Board.
- b)Ten percent (10%) of the remainder shall be allocated to the creation of a scholarship program for students with scarce economic resources, who reside in the cantons of Buenos Aires, Golfito, Osa, Corredores and Coto Brus.
- c)The resulting balance after the deductions made, in accordance with the preceding subsections, shall be distributed as follows: thirty percent (30%) for the canton of Golfito, twenty percent (20%) for the canton of Osa, twenty percent (20%) for the canton of Corredores, fifteen percent (15%) for the canton of Coto Brus and fifteen percent (15%) for the canton of Buenos Aires." "Article 21.- The Municipality of Golfito is authorized to establish a special license (patente especial) for the Golfito commercial free zone.
Until such time as the rates are established by the Municipality of Golfito, merchants may not sell in the Golfito commercial free zone, under the protection of the current commercial licenses."