2001News

PRD lead warns government on fiscal excesses

A former Administrative Secretary to the President, Rafael Flores Estrella (PRD 1982-86), warned President Hipólito Mejía that a dangerous situation might emerge in the country in the next few months, if he is not attentive to the grievances of various sectors regarding newly enacted taxes. He told Hoy newspaper aaaaathat "when in a society as conservative as the Dominican, the protests of the business sector are congruent with those of labor, and other grass roots movements, it should signal the government that a serious problem exists. He criticized the current government for applying "savage capitalism" policies that are pushing the middle class and the working class against the wall. There are no compensatory measures to off-set the burden of the new tax package and, if there were, they could not be sufficient to compensate for the devastation that the new tax measures have wrought on the lowest socio-economic rungs of society.