Technical Secretary of the Presidency Carlos Despradel has said the government needs more tax revenues and will impose them “in a few days.” The economic editor of the Listin Diario, Hector Linares, writes today on one that may be THE tax. This again refers to the proposal circulating, whereby the government would tax the yields of savings certificates. The newspaper says this would produce RD$2.7 billion a year – enough to offset the eliminated 5% tax on exports needed for the government to maintain its present level of spending.
Linares points out that the new tax would be very easy to apply, as the banks would retain the tax for the government. There are 12 commercial banks, 18 savings and loans banks, 17 development banks, one mortgage bank and 17 financial intermediaries authorized to operate by the government. Cooperatives could be exempt from the measure.
To tax interest rates, Law 11-92, which exempts savings deposits from income tax remittances, would need to be modified by Congress. The economic editor says that the downside would be that it would penalize those who, instead of spending or converting their pesos to dollars for deposit abroad, have entrusted their funds to savings accounts in the country.