Former President Leonel Fernandez broke his silence to urge the Mejia administration to eliminate the 5% charge on exchange transactions. He said that the 5% was only justified while the government did not increase fuel prices. He said that with the increase of fuel prices, and the increase of ITBIS, and the tax on select items, there is no longer a need for the 5% charge. He said that his government had proposed an increase of the ITBIS on products already being taxed. And that the Mejía government expanded the number of items that would have to pay the ITBIS. He said that while the original intent was to compensate the reduction of government income as a result of reducing import tariffs, what the Mejía government chose to carry out was an overall increase in its income by the creation of new taxes. He said that this is untimely given the high price of fuel, and that what is resulting is an increase of inflation and an overall increase in the cost of living. "This is not the time to have burdened the people with these measures that will deteriorate their standard of living, which makes the people irritated and mad," said Fernández when interviewed at the PLD National Convention. "The people now believe that what was sold to them as a government with a human face does not match reality," he said.
