Senator Jose Antonio Najri (Santo Domingo-PRD) criticized that the proposed taxes penalize the middle class and could serve to stimulate contraband. He said the country cannot be converted into a "salon cerrado", despite the needs of the government for more income to satisfy social demands. He said the package of bills needs to be drawn up with development, transparency and honesty in mind. He said that by making imports prohibitively expensive, the government is stimulating contraband which will result in unfair competition to legitimate business.
