The business community has expressed surprise at the Senate’s approval of the 5% tax on exports. Groups such as CONEP (private business association) and ANJE (young entrepreneurs’ association), who had agreed to the monthly flat-rate “solidarity contributions” to the government in an attempt to ease the effects of the economic crisis, said that they could not take on both commitments. El Caribe claims to have copies of documents outlining the agreements between the government and the export sector, free trade zones and tourism sectors, which denote that the contributions would be conditioned to the government abandoning any plans to introduce charges such as this latest tax. The International Monetary Fund has also expressed reservations regarding the 5% tax on imports and the Supreme Court had declared its introduction “unconstitutional”, although this verdict was based primarily on the way it was originally imposed – by Presidential decree – without going through the correct legislative channels. In response to questions on the tax that had been pronounced dead by exporters’ association (ADOEXPO) president Samir Rizek just last week, CONEP’s president, Elena Viyella de Paliza, said, “Either one or the other, but not both.” ANJE’s vice-president, Manuel Diez, pointed out that the 5% tax had proved to be an inefficient means of raising revenue during the two-month period it was in effect. Business leader Celso Marranzini said that this sort of action only served to diminish economic confidence in the government. Finance Minister Rafael Calderon maintained that there was “no contradiction” between the export tax and the “solidarity contributions”. He said that the tax would be calculated with the contributions being made by each sector in mind. These donations, he explained, were aimed at helping the government comply with the IMF standby agreement’s requirements. Meanwhile, FINJUS (Foundation for Institutionalism and Justice) has taken another recent tax hike to the Supreme Court – last month’s increase in the exchange rate commission on imports, which was raised from 4.75% to 10%.