Carrefour, the world’s second largest retailer, announced it would be investing RD$700 million to expand its Plaza Duarte store. Carrefour opened last year with a supermarket, eight stores, two banks and seven food vending shops. The expansion calls for the construction and sale of 65 new shops within the complex located on the outskirts of Santo Domingo. Agustin Santos called a press conference to dispute reports that the chain was leaving the DR. He said that sales are down as in other stores given the slowdown of the economy. He denied rumors that the company had sold shares to the Centro Cuesta Nacional, and that the government had exonerated them of paying the 1.5% gross sales tax so they would stay. Santos said that the company established a new category of responsible tax payers in the DR by acting with absolute transparency before the authorities. Sources say that the level of taxes paid by Carrefour in its first months of operation led the government to improve supervision of the operations of other large supermarket chains that for years had been paying little in taxes.
