President Hipolito Mejia announced yesterday that the government would return RD$74 million to the tourism and free zone sectors, collected as part of the “tax contributions.” According to Maximo Manuel Perez of the Listin Diario, Finance Minister Rafael Calderon told reporters that the money would be returned since the majority of the business community had not fulfilled its duty to make the tax contributions as promised. Businesses that dealt in hard currencies were supposed to pay RD$1 for every dollar exported, or exchange dollars at a rate RD$3 less than the official daily rate. Calderon said that RD$63 million would be returned to the free zones and RD$11 million to the tourist sector. In his statements to the press, the minister alluded to a mutual lack of trust existing between the business sector and the government. The government is counting on hard currency producing sectors contributing revenues through a 5% tax on exports.