For over a week journalists have been asking Central Bank and government officials to explain why Bank and Finance Ministry figures do not match regarding 1998 the petrol tax thereon known as "the differential." This petrol tax was imposed upon most petroleum-derived fuels by the Fern?ndez Government with the express purpose of paying off external debt, with collections to be deposited directly with the Central Bank. After various conflicting explanations from Bank and government sources, Technical Secretary of the Presidency Tem?stocles Mont?s yesterday cleared up the mystery. He admitted that in 1998 some RD$1.45 billion of the revenues collected from the petrol tax did not go to paying debt, but rather were used to subsidize activities of the Dominican Electricity Corporation (CDE), the State Sugar Council (CEA) and "the modernization of public transport" [presumably an allusion to the start-up of the new OMSA buses routes in Santo Domingo under direction of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (AMET)]. He explained that when revenue amounts generated exceeded those needed to make scheduled debt payments, the extra "went to the public sector." He promised that, starting in July 1999, ALL revenue generated will go to the Bank for debt payment, even when it exceeds that needed for scheduled payments. This revelation by the Government is likely to spark renewed calls from business and community organizations for a cut in the petrol tax, so that the average consumer and the economy at-large can benefit from cost savings.
