Generating much needed revenue

With all the latest news about restructuring the government and the need to acquire more funds and a host of other things the ruling party wishes to do and as this hasn’t been addressed on the board I thought I would start this up.

As DR1 is such a well read site it is unfortunate that the makers of laws here don’t read it. The advice of this board is so vast and as so many of its members are in fact Dominicans living here and abroad that good policy direction could be proposed and debated and hopefully implemented.

The major thing to me that the PLD has failed to openly state is that they wish to do away with the cronyism that is rampant throughout the government. The fact that people like Señor Miguel Cocco and police chief Bernardo Santana Páez have been firing a lot of their corrupt workers lately gives hope that the DR is on the right track. The National Planning Office (Onaplan) director Guarocuya Felix with his proposed reform is interesting but it needs the backing of the government to become effective.

With the limited research that I have conducted I have found a couple of areas that would generate a substantial savings in money spent by the government if they were serious about making this a better country.

The Dominican Municipal League (LMD) is a prime example of an organization that needs to be abolished. LMD spokesperson Victor Gulias, states that salaries of RD$948 million 970 thousand is paid through the league’s treasury office, 1 . Using these figures and as per Law 166-03 which states that these figures represents 25% of the total funds given to the towns would mean that the federal government supplies approximately RD$ 2,846,910,000 monthly to the 151 municipalities or RD$18,853,708 each on average. The government has the capability to disperse funds directly to the municipalities without going through the LMD.

The fact that the LMD is involved in a wide range of wrong doings is very evident. 3. The employment of bogus workers on the payrolls is a thief from the Dominican people and when those bogus workers are assigned to high paying positions then the thief is substantial. 4, 5, 6, 7.

Another example of waste in non-producing employment is within the agro sector. The difference between that sector and that of Chile should serve as a good example of cronyism gone wild.

The Dominican Customs Agency (DGA) always seems to be working hard to bring in that money which people try to steal from the populace by not paying taxes. A quick search shows tax dodging to the tune of at least 300 million in May and June of 2006. The income from this agency for the first quarter of 2006, not counting the ones that got away or the ones they caught, is here.

Are there other ways to save or generate monies on this island without taxing the people into the poor house?

Rick

Ggrande your observation is very true but then again this is nothing new. Just like the LMD, argo sector and a host of other organizations that have been going on for years with a continuous drain on the coffers those in the electoral section need to be changed from their present configuration.

Rick

There is so much media reporting about the debt of the DR and I assume this is why the taxes have been escalating. Aside from the aforementioned ideas, which are all good, I desire that all of you think outside the box for generating revenue.

After doing a substantial amount of thinking about how to generate more revenue without raising taxes I have come up with a couple of ideas.

I have done a lot of research trying to assess how many motorcycles there are in the DR but have been unable to acquire said information. I would venture to guess that there are well over 100,000 and it’s a sure bet that at least 90% of them are not tagged. I think that the department of motor vehicles here should require all motorcycles to have a license plate. I also think that this plate should require a yearly renewal and the price for a plate and each renewal should be RD$100 pesos. Using the above figures on the approximated number of motorcycles would produce a yearly income to the government of RD$ 9,000,000.

It is also my belief that all police, not just AMET, should be issued ticket books like all the police in the US has. With the use of computers it would be very easy to implement sequentially numbered ticket books with each ticket in triplicate. This would insure there was no misuse of said tickets by the police. Having a published list of infractions with their fines would allow the police to administer a ticket for an infraction and the person accused of the infraction would have a choice of paying on the spot or allowing it to go to court. In either case the accused would get a copy of the citation with a date for court or the word ‘paid’ and a signature of both the accused and the police officer on the citation. At the end of the day the police officer would be required to submit his book for the information to be entered into the computer and the second copy of the ticket issued to the record keeper. The book would show how much the officer collected that day from the accused having paid and he would be required to turn in said amount. For those having to go to court this too would be entered into the computer. At the time of adjudication the outcome, guilty with fine or jail time or not guilty, would be entered into the computer. This procedure would serve a fourfold purpose. First it would generate much needed revenue, second it would supply a record of different types of crime and where they happen, third it would be a good indicator of which police officers are not doing anything and fourth it would eventually cause crimes like littering, urinating in public, drunk and disorderly, faulty equipment and a host of others to go down thereby insuring a better and safer society. These officers would also have the authority to give warnings and fixit tickets. This is not hard to implement and the funds generated could help the government to pay their police a decent salary.

The tickets would help insure that all motorcycles have a license plate. After getting a RD$25 peso ticket daily for not having plates a vehicle owner is more apt to pay the RD$100 peso yearly fee for plates.

Feed back?

Rick

Hillbilly,
I thought there were more then 100,000 but I used that figure as an example. I also know that there presently is a law on the books for having a plate but needless to say the configuration of the present system and the lack of enforcement of the existing laws only allows a shakedown of the citizens at the discretion of the police.

This periodic shakedown by the police, which is being discussed in another thread, does not benefit the police overall nor does it generate any revenue to the government. If there are more then 100,000 bikes on the road then the yearly revenue that is able to be generated is well over 9 million pesos per year.

I keep hearing about the police on the beat being given computers to use and that they are being used to search for outstanding warrants when a stop is being conducted. The problem as I see it is that there is no established procedure for putting all the lawbreakers into the system.

Here in El Seybo, which AMET only comes to visit maybe one day every quarter, produces no income for the police other then the occasional bribe for an infraction. If the local police were able to legally enforce traffic infractions, which only AMET can do, and the infraction was recorded on an easily traced ticket then all infractions would be put into the system with their dispositions. This would allow for a traceable generation of much needed revenue. If that person from El Seybo that got ticketed in El Seybo two months ago for speeding but failed to show up for his court date in El Seybo should get stopped in La Romana tomorrow for making an illegal turn would quickly be jailed for the outstanding warrant in El Seybo along with having another citation in La Romana.

Rick

Remember that comercial “Where’s the beef?”. Alter reading the DR1 news concerning the 26% of the Dominican children under 15 not being registered had the last paragraph says, “Taxpayers have paid on multiple occasions for the setting up by the Central Electoral Board of a hospital-based registration programs, but this has not happened and funds have been diverted for other purposes.”

Then there was the report about the million dollar helicopter that taxpayers paid for so that Amable Aristy Castro, president of the Dominican Municipal League, could has transportation from his home Santo Domingo to La Altagracia province where his daughter, Karina, is mayor of the city of Higuey.

I have recently been commenting about how the DR could generate needed funds by forcing owners of motorcycles to purchase license plates and then I learn today that license plates for motorcycles haven’t been produced for about four years in this country.

There was a report today that the Department of Taxes has announced collections of RD$44.7 billion for January to May 2006, which is RD$9.9 billion more than last year, or a 28.5% increase. It was also stated that the government is enjoying this revenue bonanza because January's tax reform increased taxes in order to compensate for duty free imports that have not yet taken place, as DR-CAFTA has not yet come into effect.

On top of this the government quickly puts on the ‘frown face’ and says that they can’t pay off the deficit.

All which leads me to the question!

Where’s the beef?

Rick

Doing a little research concerning AMET and their issuing of tickets for infractions and came up with these figures;

Aug 06 - 85,174
Jul 06 - 67,798
Jun 06 - 27,171
May 06 ? 8,304
Apr 06 - 17,800
Mar 06 - 37,369
Feb 06 - 20,495
Jan 06 - 19,229
Dec 05 - 18,477

Interesting to note that around the holidays of Xmas and New Years that infractions are pretty low. Also interesting to note that during the month of May almost everybody must have left their motor vehicles at home.

Notice the increase of citations for the time period of the new alcohol ordinance. Could this be any indication of AMET doing their job properly or almost properly?

I love listening to the diehards that continue to complain about police not making enough money. The fact that that they have employment in a country where so many have no means of employment of course has no relevance in this conversation. Let?s talk money.

We all know that there are different fines for different infractions but just for hypothetical purposes let?s use a round figure of ??? RD$50 for all infractions. With this figure this would bring an income of RD$4,258,700 into the coffers for Aug 06. Of course this doesn?t reflect the monies that were paid directly to the police in lieu of receiving a ticket, income supplementation. I am not a rocket scientist but I would hazard a guess that well over a million people commit traffic infractions each month. It would seem that if the police were to perform their jobs correctly then a low estimate of 15% citations should be expected each month. Using the extremely low figure as I reference would indicate a monthly citation income of at least RD$7,500,000. As the cost of a citation is more then 50 pesos I think you can estimate the vast amounts of money that proper issuing of citations could generate.

The reality of the police taking their job seriously and performing their duties correctly would serve two major functions as I see it. First it would expand the coffers allowing the authorities to give a pay increase to the police and secondly the issuing of citations may very well teach the drivers to respect the laws therefore making driving and life in general here in the DR safer and better.

Rick

Came across this article today. Disregarding the user comments, hehehehe, I found the article interesting in that I learned that there are 1,400 AMET officers out there on the streets.

If 300 of those 1,400 with their new apparatuses could manage to write 2 citations each a day at 50 pesos per citation they could produce 1,800 citations a month at a net worth of at least 90,000 pesos a month. The other 1,100 AMET?s who don?t have these apparatuses to carry around should be able to write 3 citations a day each. These 1,100 people could provide a net worth of citation income of 4,950,000 per month.

That equates to 5,040,000 pesos a month from citations which would equate to a 3,600 peso wage increase for each and every AMET officer. Hummmmmmmmm.