Some hours before his TV appearance, President Hipolito Mejia met with an invited group of business representatives to defend his plan to assess a 2% monthly tax on wholesale commerce. Mejia told officers of the Dominican Businessmen?s Federation, the Dominican Federation of Retailers, and various wholesalers? associations that ?everyone? had accepted the increase in the ITBI tax, as well as the new import tariffs, and that it remains for the Congress to ratify them. The president of the Dominican Businessmen?s Federation, Ivan Garcia, said that his group can accept most of the Mejia tax package, except for the 2% wholesale tax? which, according to Garcia, will lead to the ?bankruptcy of 30,000 businesses? nationally. The group told Mejia that they would demonstrate ?en masse? against the measure with Congress.
