President Hipolito Mejia urged the Senate to approve the bills creating a 5% tax on exports and a 2% tax on imports resubmitted by the Executive Branch this week. Last week, the Supreme Court of Justice declared the surcharges to be in violation of the Constitution. This is the second time the Executive Branch has sent the bill to the Senate. Earlier, the Technical Secretary of the Presidency had removed the bill.
Marisol Vicens, the president of the National Association of Entrepreneurs (ANJE), told El Caribe that the government’s attitude of insisting on the tax only generates greater uncertainty among producers.
Relatedly, a spokesman for the Dominican Exporters Association (Adoexpo) said the government should return the RD$95 million it collected with the surcharge. Horacio Alvarez of Adoexpo said the tax was a failure and pointed to the fact that the government had planned to collect RD$3 billion from August to December with the levy. In the first two months, however, only RD$95 million was received. Alvarez argued that the proposed 5% tax on exports affects the competitiveness of Dominican exports.