Former President Leonel Fernandez in an article in the Listin Diario editorial pages today says that neither when in government nor in the opposition has he been against an increase in taxes so that the state may have more resources to foster national development. He says that what he has opposed is the timing of the taxes and their pacing, or carrying them out in a gradual manner. He said that the timing for the tax reform couldn’t have been worse given the high petroleum prices and, weakening of the euro and slowdown of the US economy. He said the country has entered into a critical stage. He also criticized that to get the country out of the rut it has created, it now proposes to issue US$500 million in sovereign bonds. He says he sees the sovereign bonds as an efficient financial instrument that the country could use in the future to accelerate its transformation process. “But necessarily I must express my disapproval with a bill to issue the bonds to finance infrastructure… Weren’t these works included in the 2001 National Budget? If they were, why finance them with the sovereign bonds money when the money was projected to come from taxes?” Furthermore, he highlights, “If the government achieved a fiscal surplus of RD$2,100 million in the first quarter, why does it need to finance these works by increasing the foreign debt?” He points out that if instead of the announced surplus there has been a deficit then the government should revise the budget and reduce public spending. “But it will not do so, because both in matters of issuing bonds, as in the generality of its acts, what distinguishes the present government is its unstoppable vocation for improvising. And that, obviously, we oppose.”
