Puerto Rico’s House of Representatives rejected a tax-overhaul bill that would have paved the way for a $2.9 billion debt sale needed to avert a cash crunch, pushing prices on the commonwealth’s newest bonds to a record low, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. The chamber voted against the measure 28 to 22 on Thursday, said Ileana Baez Bravo, a spokeswoman for Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla. The bill, which failed to gain unanimous support from legislators of the governor’s Popular Democratic Party, would have introduced a 13 percent levy on goods and services along with a 1 percent sales tax. Last week, the Government Development Bank warned that the government may shut down within three months because of a lack of funds. The Development Bank, which handles the U.S. commonwealth’s debt sales, has said passage of the tax plan is essential to attract investors to the planned bond deal. The bank’s net liquidity declined to $1.1 billion as of March 31 from $2 billion in October.
