It is all about who gets the revenue. Rafael Ubiera Padua, Director of Municipal Taxes and Revenues for the National District, told the news daily El Siglo that Santo Domingo’s city council adopted last Friday a resolution (16/99) that seeks to impede the national government from collecting tolls on vehicles entering the city on Las Am?ricas, Duarte and S?nchez Highways. Currently tolls are only collected on vehicles leaving the city, not those entering. The resolution asserts that neither the city nor the national government is authorized to collect a new toll without explicit consent of Congress. It calls for a special committee of regulators and legislators to draft a national law under which Congress would so empower the city to collect the money. Ubiera is drafting a municipal law that would claim all tolls on incoming vehicles passing through the new highway toll booths being erected by the Public Works Ministry. The municipal law will cite as the basis for the city’s claim Law 3456, which cedes control of Santo Domingo streets and avenues to the city. Ubiera points out that the sums involved are not trivial: estimates are that the incoming tolls collected would amount to RD$3 million monthly, or RD$36 million total annually, which is 75% as much as the city’s top revenue-generator, the tax imposed on city hotels.In a related story, President Fern?ndez yesterday issued a decree creating a new Directorate-General of Control, Maintenance and Supervision of the Toll System under the Public Works Ministry.
