Financial consultant and New York Federal Reserve Bank assistant researcher Pablo Amaury Espinal said the best option for the government to secure fresh funds is to use the US$700 million available through organizations like the Interamerican Development Bank and the World Bank. Most of this money has been approved and is only pending matching funds from the Dominican government and fulfillment of contractual obligations. Espinal, speaking during a conference at the Universidad Iberoamericana, said he does not agree with using money generating from the new taxes to increase government spending. The Listin Diario reports on the conference where Espinal said he cannot understand how the government can be seeking external loans just months after passing new taxes which are by themselves a major burden on Dominicans. “The idea was that the new taxes would serve to finance the government’s programs,” he says. He said if the tax package had been efficiently planned it would have provided enough money to pay the foreign debt and contribute the necessary funds for construction works.
