Articles in the newspapers Informacion of Santiago and Hoy of Santo Domingo focus on the need to streamline access to the power grid for major energy users. In a speech given in La Vega, Luis Jose Bonilla Bojos, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and Production of Santiago, told his audience that direct purchases of energy would allow manufacturers to compete more effectively in the world market. Citing the fact that the Cibao area produces nearly one half of the Gross Domestic Product and pays close to half of the taxes received by the state, Bonilla Bojos renewed his plan for an ?electric highway? between the East and the Cibao. This new high-tension connection between the eastern part of the Dominican Republic and the Cibao Valley would help compensate for the shortcomings of the national system, which at this time does not have a direct connection. Hoy newspaper headlines a similar story with businessmen and the electrical power generators asking for the removal of the ?tolls? for connections to the power grid by high-consumption users. Resolution 15-01 governs these tolls and, according to the industrialists and the power generators, their existence increases electricity costs by as much as 30%.
The Superintendent of Electricity, Julio Cross, said that he would investigate the possibility of annulling the regulation, as he agrees that it goes too far and practically voids Article 108 of the Electricity Law. Seventeen industrial groups have joined in this request.
