Jose Alfredo Rizek, the executive director of the Foundation for Institutionalism and Justice (FINJUS), comments today that the government may be trying to pull a sort of fast-track tributary reform and he alerts Congress to the challenge it has before it. Rizek writes to explain that if Congress approves the budget as is, it automatically approves the taxes whose revenues are contained therein. Rizek explained for DR1 Daily News that since the budgetary bill has a one-year duration, as approved by the Executive Branch, it would have to specify that the taxes would be of indefinite duration, if the intent is for these to continue.
In an op-ed contribution to El Caribe newspaper, Rizek also focuses on what he describes as a “constitutional and legal trick” that was first designed by the late President Joaquin Balaguer. He raises the awareness that if Congress does not pass the budget, received just before the legislative body breaks for the holidays, the 2003 budget would be implemented instead, allowing the government to use the differences from one year to another at its own discretion.
Rizek writes that his views were formed by putting aside the fact that the sword of Damocles hanging over us is held by the IMF, and urges reflection on the subject. In 1996, he recalls, when then-President Fernandez attempted a similar move – to pass a budget and new tax laws in one fell swoop – it was rejected by the PRD-majority Congress on the grounds that it was a legal absurdity.
Rizek says that Congress must react. He mentions that since 16 August, the legislative body has not passed any bills of significance – with the exception of more bonds and debt. “Now is their sole opportunity to exert their presence as legislators and representatives of those who voted for them. It is not that they should reject the budget for 2004? but this is an opportunity to promote the required consensus so that the budget serves next year as an instrument for the development of the Dominican Republic as a nation.”
Rizek says that legislators should take note that only 15% of budgeted funds have been allotted to construction works and that the allotments to the education sector are pathetically meager. He said that if Congress were truly conscientious, it would reduce the Executive Branch’s allotments for wages, travel and diet expenditures to the minimum, ensure that resources were directed to productive investments and insist that expenditures not have any further impact on the peso.
He recognizes that the debt contracted by the state must be paid, but says that there is no reason to continue to be so generous with government institutions that have shown themselves to be only marginally relevant. Rizek concludes that while his readers may think him naive, it is Christmas, after all, a time during which everything is possible. The writer can be reached for comments at finjus@codetel.net.do