2003 – Page 21

The tax authorities are asking that all foreign currency generators present a full report of their transactions for the last 11 months. The DGII (internal revenue department) has given five days for companies that handle foreign currency, including exporters, free trade zones, hotels and tourist businesses, to declare all their dollar operations, as well as …

Read more…

Businessman Celso Marranzini Perez doubts the government’s attempts to force down the dollar-peso rate will have any lasting effects. “I don’t believe in pressure tactics, because they have never worked in any economy. I wish the dollar would go down to RD$30 to US$1,” said Marranzini. Carlos Guillermo Leon, president of the newly renamed Banco …

Read more…

The National Business Council (CONEP) is repeating its call for the government to reduce public spending in order to tackle the current monetary crisis. In a working document prepared for CONEP by the economic consultancy firm Ecocaribe, and as presented at the Third Business Convention held at Santo Domingo’s Hotel Jaragua which concludes today, they …

Read more…

Economist Eduardo Tejera, also speaking at the business convention at the Hotel Jaragua, called on the Central Bank to publish the details of the high-interest savings certificate holders. According to Tejera, only 57 certificate holders account for RD$47-billion worth of the total RD$63-billion issue. Revealing this information could be done without releasing names, he said, …

Read more…

Federico Cuello, former DR ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO), writes today in the editorial pages of El Caribe newspaper on the questionable coherence in government policies. To garner more revenues, he explains, the government increased taxes on imports. With imports notably more expensive, Dominicans began buying less foreign goods, and government revenues on …

Read more…

The judge in the Baninter fraud case, Eduardo Sanchez Ortiz, has adjourned the hearing on the bail petition for the three main suspects, former Baninter president Ramon Baez Figueroa, and vice-presidents Marcos Baez Cocco and Vivian Lubrano de Castillo. The hearing will resume on Tuesday 9 December. Lawyers for the accused are growing increasingly impatient …

Read more…

Membership to the ruling PRD party does not guarantee immunity to official surveillance, if Enmanuel Esquea Guerrero, Milagros Ortiz Bosch, Ramon Alburquerque and Henry Mejia’s experiences are anything to go by. They are complaining that their phones have been tapped, according to Diario Libre, whose editors have also reportedly been victims of this type of …

Read more…

The national emergencies committee (CNE) is warning that tropical storm Odette could provoke heavy rainfall, strong winds and turbulent seas in the vicinity of the Dominican Republic over the next 24 to 36 hours. The emergency services are on red alert, according to CNE president Radhames Lora Salcedo. Most vulnerable are the already waterlogged areas …

Read more…

Yesterday, in the eastern city of La Romana, President Hipolito Mejia reaffirmed his goal to lower the exchange rate to RD$30 to US$1. According to the Listin Diario, the President, while on the campaign trail, told reporters that he had shown patience in dealing with the elevated exchange rate, but has decided to stop “playing” …

Read more…

The Supreme Court announced yesterday that the appeal to annul the decision of the Litigation Court of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) had expired and that the challenge on Eduardo Estrella’s nomination as the official PRSC candidate was dismissed. The 16-judge panel decided that as Peynado had not summoned Estrella within the required 30-day period, …

Read more…