The President of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic (AIRD), Nassim Alemany, argued yesterday that it was not necessary to raise the Transfer Tax on Industrial Goods and Services (ITBIS) in order to compensate for revenue losses from tariff cuts, as the government has argued. Alemany argued that lower tariffs will probably increase imports, compensating through volume for some of the revenue lost by cutting tariff levels. Furthermore, he asserted, Dominican customs authorities traditionally have undervalued goods when estimated tariffs due, thereby denying the government all the customs payments it should be due. He suggested that Dominican Customs take up an offer from the U.S. Customs to help make the DR’s customs valuations more realistic, and thereby increase tariff income. He suggested that such measures may be able to completely counterbalance revenue loss from dropping tariff levels, making the ITBIS hike sought by the government unnecessary.
