President-elect Leonel Fernandez announced the inception of a team of technicians who will work with the National Council of Business (CONEP) to prepare the tax reform bill for presentation to Congress, as reported in Hoy newspaper. CONEP executives and their economists Bernardo Vega and Pedro Silverio met yesterday with Fernandez and PLD technicians Temistocles Montas, Daniel Toribio, Rafael Camilo and Juan Hernandez, in the presence of Monsignor Agripino Nunez Collado, at Casa de Campo. Also attending were Vice President-elect Rafael Alburquerque, businessman Luis Manuel Bonetti, and economists Frederic Emam Zade, Julio Ortega and Eduardo Tejera. On hand for the private sector were Luis Molina Achecar (BHD bank), Rafael del Toro (Banco Popular Dominicano), Franklin Baez Brugal (Brugal rum) and Lisandro Macarrulla, the president of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic. The aim is to submit the bill to Congress in July as the Mejia government had committed to do.
CONEP will meet with President Mejia to present the bill, once prepared. Mejia has claimed that his government does not have a proposal. CONEP will request that President Mejia then submit the bill to Congress.
Elena Viyella de Paliza, as the president of CONEP, says that the bill will be prepared so as to restore the agreement with the IMF as soon as possible. The IMF suspended the implementation of the agreement and several scheduled disbursements, when the Mejia administration failed to comply with limits on spending, among other requirements. The IMF has also requested that the agreement be adhered to regarding the presentation of the tax reforms by July.
Viyella de Paliza said there was agreement on levying a slight increase in taxes, without them being a burden to consumers or the business sector. She said during the La Romana meeting that the group focused on two scenarios: one in which there would be delays in the approval of the Free Trade Agreement with the US, and another that the FTA would go through. The FTA?s ratification will affect governmental customs revenues, as most items will then enter duty-free as per the terms of the agreement.
As reported in El Caribe newspaper, Elena Viyella summed up the position of the business sector thusly: ?It is very important to reach an agreement regarding taxes in order to eliminate the barriers to competition, so that our exports bring an increase in hard currency revenues and so there may be increased productivity and efficiency that improves the country overall.?
The meeting was held a day prior to the arrival of Jose Fajgenbaum, the IMF Deputy Director of the Western Hemisphere, and economist Roberto Steiner, who are scheduled to meet with incoming and outgoing monetary officials to obtain an agreement on the tax reform legislation and other corrective measures to be implemented.