Where?

PJT

Silver
Jan 8, 2002
3,562
298
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PJT needs some assistance.

Well, after paying three consecutive years of paying taxes for my camioneta, the government says it does not exist. (Purchased in the States and shipped with my household goods.) I made many trips to the Director General of Taxes in Higuey in order to get my new plate, only to be turned away because of a list of reasons/excuses. Now, the latest, my truck is not in the computer system, even though I presented them the original metricula issued at the Port of Haina. They say I have to go to the Capital to straighten the matter out. I wonder how come my tax Pesos were accepted the previous three years if it is "not in the computer"? Going into somebody's pocket, I suppose, ....and what else is new?

I was informed to go to Ave Mexico to resolve the matter. Does anybody know where on Av. Mexico this gringo needs to go, do, and what to bring with him.

Regards, PJT
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
18,948
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Rentas Internas??

That is just a guess. That's where all the other thieves hang out...

Just take your papers, plus a 100 lb sack of Patience, and make the trip...

HB
 

lhtown

Member
Jan 8, 2002
377
0
16
Re: Rentas Internas??

Hillbilly said:
That is just a guess. That's where all the other thieves hang out...

Just take your papers, plus a 100 lb sack of Patience, and make the trip...

HB

Anybody have any long term lodging/hotel ideas for PJT?

Seriously, we feel for you and wish you the best. You might have to go to the police station. PM me, and I can give you the phone number of a lawyer who specializes in matriculas. His office is right in front of Plan Piloto. He advertises traspaso de matriculas in 24 hours. I don't know him well enough to trust him, but I do think he could get you out of the mess. What it would cost is anyone's guess. HB's method would be cheaper unless you really do end up paying hotel bills and/or making multiple trips.
 

PJT

Silver
Jan 8, 2002
3,562
298
83
Ugh!!!!!

Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For every step forward it seems there is five steps backwards. The system is broke and there is no bubblegum, even to plug the holes.

Our situation is we want to get new plates for our camioneta (pick-up). We cannot get the plates because the local Higuey DGII cannot pull the metricula information from their computer. No information, no plates. They cannot make the correction from Higuey. We have to go to the Capital to effect a correction at the DGII on Av Mexico. Well, Mrs. PJT and I spent the day yesterday, Tuesday, in S.D. at the DGII on Av Mexico, #48, to correct our problem with the metricula. We had to go up to the fourth floor and swear on a stack of bibles and kiss the feet of the janitor to gain entrance.

No, not really, we had to go and ?WAIT? and then see some guy called Bowden on the fourth floor, provide some paperwork to prove ownership, Bill of Sale, US title, shipping documents, and tax payments, ECT. Some information was entered in to the database from his office. We were told the problem was caused because there was no RNC number assigned to the original metricula. We then had to go and see some big jefe (well appointed office, he was snacking on an apple rather than a banana) with the name of Cedeno to get him to sign off or verify the existing metricula. We had to pay some dumb tax of 150 Pesos. I call it the **k-up tax. It is that you, the victim, pay for the government?s **k-up. We then went to some other office and ?WAITED? for and hour so before some other sub-jefe could hand our papers to a clerk to enter. After 5 hours of this bureaucracy we were told our information is now in the system and we can go to the first floor to process for the plates or go home and do it from Higuey. We waited in some horrendously long line on the first floor to submit the paperwork for the plates. However, it was past 2 PM and they were not taking any more paperwork. Ugh!!!!! Let?s head back home and do it from Higuey tomorrow.

Tomorrow came and we went to DGII in Higuey. Guess what? Our information is not in the system.

Back to the Capital we go. Patience, Hillbilly says, patience. I'm working on my reserve sack.


Regards, PJT
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
982
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Commiserations, PJT. My husband also had the frustrating experience of having to pay a penalty for their mistake: they had entered the wrong model of vehicle onto the computer and insisted he had to pay to have it rectified.

As the Dominicans say, esto es el pais de las maravillas.

Chiri
:ermm:
 

PJT

Silver
Jan 8, 2002
3,562
298
83
Tony C said:
Jeez.

Why don't you just bribe some high Offcial and be done with it?

How long have you lived in the DR?

Why? I use my bribe account to place food in the mouths, clothes on the backs, and purchase medicine for the poor rather than subsidize a SUV for a fat cat. It is not the end of the world. I have the time and the patience to see this through. Because, I'm not about to pay a private tax to someone else for what they should be doing right in the first place.

Length of time in the country has nothing to do with this.

Regards, PJT
 

simpson Homer

Bronze
Nov 14, 2003
559
6
0
try to talk to the director

Try to talk to the director not the buscones dont lose your time talking with guys at the door, "Just that you want to speak with the director or his assistant" when you get there to the DGII

Sorry for the situation.

Homer Simpson
 

PJT

Silver
Jan 8, 2002
3,562
298
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Part Two

Part two of the DGII saga.

The Mrs. PJT and I departed to the Capital Thursday am and arrived at the DGII building on Av. Mexico, about a block west of Av. Duarte around 9 am. We went to the first floor.

The one thing I desire to point out upon entering this cavern is you do not know where to go. The lines are long and the signage is bad. You do not want form in the wrong queue. The employees are very disinterested in helping you unless there is something in it for them. It is the buscones that do help; they know the system better than the employee?s. I spot one and he informed us what window would service us. He did this to help and refused any commission.

We got in line with our corrected paperwork. The good news was there were only six people in front of us. The bad news was the computer for that window was broken and it was being changed out for a working one, one hour it takes. We traded war stories with the others in line and heard it takes sometimes 5 days to get plates after papers are processed. It came our turn to face the DGII gauntlet. Mrs. PJT, a former expatriate Dominicana, motions me to go aside because I?m too gringo and begins smooth talking the female clerk who had taken our papers, which included the original metricula. The woman entered information into the database and made a printout of the tax statements. We were instructed to go to another window at the side of the hall with the statements. Which window? We go to the proper window and nobody is there. After a few moments a woman returns and we pass the forms to her. The Mrs. engages sweet-talk with her, we pay out taxes, RD$ 2,245. The Mrs. is now concerned after hearing about the alleged five-day wait for the plate and does some more sweet-talking to the woman outside of my presence. Somehow it works, the woman walks the paperwork to the next station, telling us it will be a two-hour wait for the plates. Note: my wife was the only woman in the hall of hundreds of angry desperate men, whose handle on the situation was to insult the clerks. No wonder it was taking them fives days to get placas. It seems my wife?s approach was a breath of fresh air. I lowered my principles telling her let?s sweeten the pot a little, to use Tony C?s method to gets things moving. She?s says no. She has the situation in control; some sort of woman-to-woman thing happened at the window she tells me. I think she slipped some cash. She denies it.

We then square up to area of the window in the final station to wait for the new metricula and plate. It is a mob scene, there is chaos, and everybody stinks. You would think DGII was giving out free beer at the window to the first 15 appearing at the window in the huddle of 50. There is no clerk at the window, one hour goes by, and then another half hour. The group is really getting angry, shaking the bars at the window, yelling more insults at the employee?s while pushing and shoving at each other. I said to the Mrs. we better leave the area. My wife, a psychiatric nurse, gets up from her seat, defuses the situation by suggesting a group go up to see the director. She leads the way; some follow and then drop away to go back to the window.

We both arrived at the fourth floor outer office of the jefe and we explained to the secretary of the foul happenings down below. We use a white lie and advise her the jefe had informed us the previous Tuesday, if we had any problems obtaining service to see him. Well, being the good secretary she runs interference for the boss. He had probably left a standing order not to be disturbed, needed time to eat his apples. Anyway, the secretary hastened to make a phone call to the first floor and after several repeated attempts she made a connection. She spoke to someone, said the delay is being taken care of, go back downstairs.

We returned to the window area, the crowd was calm; the clerk had returned (?) and was distributing the new placas and metriculas. We heard ours being called, went to the head of the crowd and received the much awaited prize. The clerk smiled. It?s 1:30 pm. Next, some of the onlookers started voicing resentments of how come we got ours so quick. Arghhh! It is time to get out of here before they take their frustrations out on us; we?re on their side of the barrier. Once outside the building, we stop for a cold Coke and I check the metricula information, all is in order. Let?s go to the bookstore then head back East.

The kicker is this past Friday my wife met an old friend in Higuey and during their conversation the metricula story came to pass. The friend said the same thing had happened to him, his registration information was not in the computer. He had gone to the DGII in the city to rectify the oversight. The clerk had refused to help him. He was ?B.S.?, bit his tongue, and walked away. He returned a few days later, saw the same clerk and sweet-talked her this time to make the correction. She did it. He then told all his friends what she did. Next thing you know he says there is a long line of folks to get the metriculas corrected.

We like to feel in retrospect a reason why we were sent to the Capital was because the vehicle?s papers are in Mrs. PJT?s name. We want to believe the Higuey clerk assumed the Mrs. was a foreigner and sent us to S.D., as procedure requires? My wife looks and acts foreign rather than Dominicana. I lean more toward the woman did not care a darn, just wanted to get rid of us, or was waiting for an offer.

The lesson learned and confirmed is the government wants to keep this service or any of its services dealing directly with the public screwed-up. If the officials were to streamline the bureaucracy it would be counterproductive to politics and to the pay-off subculture (corruption) the government workers depend upon to supplement their salary. It is still hard for me to drift away from my own principles of not paying the extra for the services you are allowed. Yes, no doubt it would have been cheaper for us to pay to smooth the way or enlisting the help of somebody we know. Yet, I do not want to depart from my own principles unless it is a true emergency.

Next time we know what to do.

Regards, PJT