NewsWhore
03-29-2011, 04:10 PM
Dominicans are again asking: more taxes for what? The IMF mission wants the Dominican government to generate more revenues by increasing taxation and electricity tariffs. At the same time, the Ministry of Hacienda reports that the tax pressure in 2010 was 12.9% of GDP, the same level as in 2004.
In its statement following the fifth review of the November 2009 Stand-by Arrangement, the mission "stressed the need to reverse the worrisome decline in the tax-to-GDP ratio, and to adopt a more flexible pricing mechanism for electricity tariffs to limit the fiscal cost of higher international oil prices".
News commentators, nevertheless, made the point that at least for the middle class, public services are not enough to justify higher taxation rates. For instance, in Germany, tax pressure is 36%, but the population receives free education, health and security services, in addition to high quality public infrastructure. In the DR, education, health and security services have had to be privatized due to deficiencies in public services. Tax pressure is defined as contributions as percentage of the gross domestic product.
See: www.oecd.org/dataoecd/48/27/41498733.pdf (http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/48/27/41498733.pdf)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)
In its statement following the fifth review of the November 2009 Stand-by Arrangement, the mission "stressed the need to reverse the worrisome decline in the tax-to-GDP ratio, and to adopt a more flexible pricing mechanism for electricity tariffs to limit the fiscal cost of higher international oil prices".
News commentators, nevertheless, made the point that at least for the middle class, public services are not enough to justify higher taxation rates. For instance, in Germany, tax pressure is 36%, but the population receives free education, health and security services, in addition to high quality public infrastructure. In the DR, education, health and security services have had to be privatized due to deficiencies in public services. Tax pressure is defined as contributions as percentage of the gross domestic product.
See: www.oecd.org/dataoecd/48/27/41498733.pdf (http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/48/27/41498733.pdf)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)