President Hip?lito Mej?a modified Decree 646-03,
established on 30 June 2003 and exempting certain items from the 2% surcharge on
imports. According to Hoy newspaper, the government subsequently issued Decree
693-03 on 16 July 2003, ordering that imports of medicines, raw materials,
equipment and capital goods of the farming sector also pay the surcharge.
The big question
HCentral Bank Governor Jos? Lois Malkum explained in an
interview with El Caribe newspaper that he made the decision to convert private
debt to public in order to prevent a major collapse of the banking system,
despite having to violate Monetary Law provisions. Malkum told the newspaper:
?Many have said that if we had not intervened, nothing would have happened. Some
write about this. But I cannot know if I was wrong or not. I assumed the
responsibility and made the decision, otherwise we would not have the
International Monetary Fund, or a deficit? We would have simply applied the law
and those who lost their money would have lost it.?
Malkum told El Caribe that the dilemma was not only to save Baninter. ?Once we
intervened in Baninter, there would be three more banks in line,? he said,
explaining his hunch they would fall like dominos.
?I have asked myself the question many times, if one involved this country in
this mess, thinking that something was going to happen that didn?t, or could
have happened, the cost would not have been RD$55 billion, but rather RD$200
billion,? he said. Malkum stated that a big question mark would always remain on
his conscience.