The Executive Branch vetoed the enmendment to Law 11-92 which would reduce the tax on airline tickets from 20% to 10%. Travel agent associations and airlines had lobbied for the bill, which would increase airline ticket sales in the Dominican Republic. Because of the tax, it costs less for travelers to purchase only a portion of their travel in the D.R. The president of the Dominican Association of Travel Agencies (ADAVIT), Pedro Martínez, and Raúl Fiallo, the highest-ranking officer of American Airlines in the D.R., said they were surprised by the veto as the President himself had promised during his presidential campaign to reduce the tax. The government argues that the monies generated by the tax are already consigned in the 1998 National Budget. The president of ADAVIT says that the reduction in the tax percentage would increase and not decrease the tax collected as more airline tickets would be sold here.
