The Customs Directorate has announced that its revenues increased in 1995 by 11.5 percent over the previous year. The department reported that its collections amounted to RD$8,635 million. Import duties accounted for 95.6 percent of the total while duties on foreign trade amounted to 37.6 percent, a decrease of 3.4 percent. The government depends heavily on duties levied on foreign trade to finance its budget. This has been vehemently criticized by many economists who see it as a dangerous situation for the nation’s economic prosperity. The government is seeking to increase inland revenue to remedy this problem.