NewsWhore
10-30-2006, 04:30 PM
The Presidential announcement that the Dominican people would be undergoing a third tax reform in three years has moved just about everyone to emit an opinion. The Superintendent of Banks, Rafael Camilo, one of President Fernandez's closest advisors, said that the current luxury taxes on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages would be changed to an ad valorum tax. The government official said that basic consumer items would not be affected, referring to medicines, education and health services. He did say that the VAT tax base will be broadened and some income sectors that were formerly exempt, will be taxed. Camilo dismissed rumors to the effect that savings income and credit card transactions would be taxed. The following day, three Catholic bishops from the Cibao Valley came out and said that the poor simply could not cope with any more taxes. Jesus Maria de Jesus Moya, the bishop of San Francisco de Macoris, Tomas Abreu, the former bishop of Mao-Montecristi and Antonio Camilo, the bishop of La Vega all asked the government not to take the easy road to obtaining more income which is taxing commercial and business people. They said that ultimately, the poorest would end up paying the highest price. And then today, Vice-President Rafael Alburquerque came out and defended the new policy, describing the opposition as "political demagogues". Speaking at the launch of the rubella vaccination campaign, he also rejected the idea put forth by the business and industrial sectors that called for a governmental payroll reduction as a way of obtaining more funds. Alburquerque said that the citizenry should not worry about the possible fiscal reform and warned the country not listen to "alarmists", adding that details of the process would be filled in once the President is back in the country. Alburquerque declared that this reform would repair the "mutilated fiscal reform" process carried out by the PRD. Instead of labeling it a fiscal reform the VP preferred to call it "fiscal rectification".
Hoy newspaper columnist Hamlet Hermann is questioning the direction of the government's fiscal policy and cites in his column that willingness to pay off international debt and continue construction of the Metro has left the government with no other option but to continue to tax the public. But why not cut government spending? Hermann says that organizations like the IMF don't care what goes on within the country because the more loans that are taken out, the more pressure those organizations can exert on the country, even if the quality of life decreases. He points out that it is not fair that every RD$3 of taxes is channeled towards paying international debt and that it is unreasonable to still be paying off a US$185 million loan taken out during the Antonio Guzman presidency 20 years ago. Hermann points out that if Norway can cancel unilateral debts taken on by previous governments that were consuming the revenues of nations like Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Peru and Ecuador, then debtor organizations can do the same. Hermann concludes his article by stating that Dominicans should not be paying off these loans while poverty increases, and that they are just as responsible for the culture of corruption that continues to enrich public servants years after they have left office.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)
Hoy newspaper columnist Hamlet Hermann is questioning the direction of the government's fiscal policy and cites in his column that willingness to pay off international debt and continue construction of the Metro has left the government with no other option but to continue to tax the public. But why not cut government spending? Hermann says that organizations like the IMF don't care what goes on within the country because the more loans that are taken out, the more pressure those organizations can exert on the country, even if the quality of life decreases. He points out that it is not fair that every RD$3 of taxes is channeled towards paying international debt and that it is unreasonable to still be paying off a US$185 million loan taken out during the Antonio Guzman presidency 20 years ago. Hermann points out that if Norway can cancel unilateral debts taken on by previous governments that were consuming the revenues of nations like Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Peru and Ecuador, then debtor organizations can do the same. Hermann concludes his article by stating that Dominicans should not be paying off these loans while poverty increases, and that they are just as responsible for the culture of corruption that continues to enrich public servants years after they have left office.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#3)