2003 – Page 58

Annet Cardenas reports for Diario Libre that 441,528 people voted in the PRD plebiscite on the re-election issue on Sunday. Of the total, 92% voted No in answer to the question of re-election as a principle. According to Henry Mejia, the PRD’s director of elections, 99% of the votes have been counted and the PRD …

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Hoy newspaper reports that so far this month six ministries have not paid their staffs’ first two weeks’ salaries of this month. According to the article, the budget office said that the accounting commission that controls the government’s books sent the majority of the payrolls back to their ministries “to be redone with clarity and …

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The director for the governmental National Institute for Price Stabilization (INESPRE) announced yesterday that the programs for farmers’ markets and the sale of everyday food items would be intensified in the coming days as an effort to halt the price speculation that has been seen in the price of rice, for example. According to Pablo …

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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 …

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El Caribe reports that the tax reforms requested by the business and industrial community would focus on the ITBIS and would either raise the rate or extend the consumer tax to yet more articles. The businesspeople also suggested raising the taxes on license plates and real estate, as well as other internal taxes. This was …

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The Baninter scandal reached the halls of the United States Congress yesterday, when, according to the Listin Diario, the Undersecretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Roger Noriega, told a House sub-committee on Western Hemisphere Affairs that President Mejia and his government acted correctly in uncovering the issues surrounding Baninter. Noriega and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) …

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Pedro Silverio, columnist and chief economist at the Cenantillas research facility at the PUCMM in Santo Domingo, comments on the three elements that seriously threaten the ability of the authorities to govern. The first is the internal crisis of the PRD party, which could erode political backing for the current government and install a President …

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The investment bank Goldman Sachs has announced its purchase of Cogentrix for an undetermined amount. Cogentrix is the parent company of the San Pedro de Macoris electric company that operates the 300-megawatt generating facility, shut down for nearly a year now. Cogentrix owns 26 generating plants and brings the total capacity of Goldman Sachs to …

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Adolfo Moreta Feliz writes in Hoy newspaper about the high cost of garbage collection in the Dominican Republic. To make his point, the author comments on councilman Domingo Jimenez, who indicated that the city governments pay US$23 to US$25 to dump the garbage in Duquesa, as reported in Hoy newspaper on 2 October. “The average …

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The Diario Libre reports that RD$27 million in gold was taken from one of the warehouses at Las Americas International Airport on the outskirts of Santo Domingo. The precious metal was destined to the Andina del Caribe factory in one of the free trade zones and was of jewelry grade brought in from Miami. Reportedly, …

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