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RD$10- RD$15 million returned The solicitor general of the Dominican Republic, Virgilio Bello Rosa, revealed today that approximately RD$10-million pesos has been returned by the accused in the case of fraud against the managers of the Propane Gas Program. Bello Rosa said the file is ready to be sent to the courts, as is a second case against ex-bureaucrats from the previous administration. In the latter case, an estimated RD$20-million was paid by those handling the Priority Works Program as an advance for a job that never was carried out. Bello Rosa declared that the return of the RD$10-million “does not involve politicians” - an allusion to Angel Lockward, former coordinator to the LPG gas program. He also said that they are looking into the case “with neither fear nor favor”. | |||
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Superintendent of Electricity: “Don’t pay.” The Superintendent of Electricity called upon clients who go to the distributors or to the Consumer Protection Office with complaints about their electric bills. He advises them not to pay any of the days of August at the new rate. The increased rates went into effect on the first of September and several complaints have been heard about electric invoices with as many as six days of service for August being charged at the higher rate. This information was made public in a paid announcement in the Listin Diario. The lead story in the Economy section reveals that AES EDE Este is obliged to return the excess money that was charged to some 40 consumers in their service area. They admitted that clients in the Villas Agricola and Villa Juana areas had been overcharged and that they had been forced by the Superintendent of Electricity to return the excess amounts to these clients. In some cases, as many as 36 days had been billed on the same invoice, while the legal limit is between 27 and 31 days. After a heated meeting between the Superintendent and the executives of AES EDE Este, the distributors bitterly complained that the Superintendent should not have gone to the press to reveal the errors and abuses that the distributors have committed. At the conclusion of the meeting it was agreed to return the money that had been overcharged. Finally, the Superintendent revealed that he had requested that all three of the distributors (AES EDE Este, EDESUR and EDE Norte) review copies of the latest billings in order to review them in the light of recent events. | |||
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No resignation for head of elections Ramon Morel Cerda, the head of the Central Electoral Board, said that he has not considered resigning, nor will he consider it. The president of the Senate, Andres Bautusta Garcia, the spokesman for the PRD, Pedro Antonio Luna and other PRD senators have rejected any participation in the national dialogue to select new members of the Central Electoral Board. For his part, Morel Cerda said that he will not resign from the post he was elected to by the Senate and in accordance with the Constitution. The president of the PRD, Hatuey DeCamps, stated that his party will not take any proposals to the dialogue, but that they would go with those submitted by other entities. Nonetheless, the vice-president of the Senate, Dagoberto Rodriguez Adames, proposed that the number of judges on the Electoral Board be increased form seven to nine, as a way out of this crisis. | |||
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Dialogue to begin on Monday All of today’s papers are running the lead story on the National Dialogue. One of the proposals is for two Electoral boards, one for sticky issues and another for the administration of the elections. Monseignor Agripino Nuñez Collado announced yesterday that he was convening a meeting at 10:00am Monday morning to begin the national dialogue among the political parties, the government and other sectors of the national scene. In this meeting the participants will try to establish an agenda for the most important items, among which is the proposal to create a new Central Electoral Board. The cleric offered this information after meeting with representatives of the PRD, the PRSC and the PLD (the three main political parties) who all accepted to participate in the dialogue and requested that the first point on the agenda be the discussion of the Central Electoral Board. Nuñez Collado said that the President had appointed the Minister of the Presidency, Sergio Grullon, as his representative at the dialogue. The meeting will take place at the Pontifical Catholic University Madre y Maestra. | |||
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President rescinds the 1.5% tax on exports Last night President Hipolito Mejia rescinded the 1.5% minimum tax on exports, as had been requested by the Dominican Association of Exporters. The President, heading the yearly dinner party of the exporters, in the Hotel Lina, said that it was necessary to eliminate the 1.5% tax because “we can’t continue to export taxes.” Mejia pointed out that export taxes lessened the DR’s ability to compete in the world marketplace, and that without the return of these costs, which take capital from the exporter, new jobs and new wealth cannot be created. | |||
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New proposals from the business sector The most important business associations of the Dominican Republic are working on a new set of alternative tax proposals for the Law on Tax Corrections that is now in Congress. This new proposal, which will be released shortly, was brought about because the business sector is disturbed by the government’s insistence on presenting the new tax law. They perceive the law to have severe distortions that will reduce government income rather that increase it. According to an industry source that knows the details of the proposals, approval of the “little package”, as it is known, will have an adverse effect on the industrial capacity of the country. Part of these new proposals will be to broaden the base of the IVA taxes (ITBIS) while reducing the tax rate itself (currently 12%). | |||
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Still more on the Census There are 67 questions on the VIII Census sheets. The government will invest an estimated RD$250-million pesos in the effort, and nearly 125,000 people will participate in the collection of the data. There are some problems, however. The decree number 786-02, which established the 18th, 19th and 20th of October as the days for the Census to be performed, was not clear on one key issue: The decree says that during these days at least one adult must be in the house to await the census takers. However, the decree, while declaring the 18th, a Friday, as a non-working day, did not take into consideration the fact that both Saturday and Sunday are important working days for people in the tourism and transportation sectors. Moreover, neither the National Office of Statistics nor the Technical Secretary of the President has explained whether the closure of beaches and places of recreation implies the cancellation of sporting events in tourist centers and the closure of the hotels. | |||
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Nicia Nuñez’goats The life of Nicia Nuñez is not typical. Even though, like many women in the small towns of the Cibao Valley, she is a devoted mother and wife, the work she does in her community distinguish her from her peers. She is an animal nurse and lends assistance to the women raising sheep and goats as an alternative to living at a subsistent level. She works in the area of Villa Bao, in the southern part of the municipality of Santiago de los Caballeros, where she is known as Nelly and calls herself “a promoter of animal health.” Nelly didn't’t have any animals on her property before beginning her course of study, but that was to change with the news that she had received a scholarship to the Superior Agricultural Institute (ISA) in La Herradura, Santiago. There she was to study animal husbandry and veterinary medicine and had already completed the basic course on handling goats and sheep, as well as cows, pigs and birds. 48 families are part of the project, funded by Heifer International and administered by ISA. The object is to give each participant two pregnant goats and two pregnant sheep. They, in return, give one of each back to ISA to continue the process. In this manner the mothers obtain milk for their children and can earn extra money by selling cheese and the meat. | |||
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