Manuel Diez Cabral, the president of the National Association of Young Entrepreneurs (ANJE), said the tax proposal presented to Congress yesterday is lacking creativity. President Hipolito Mejia presented the proposal to the Chamber of Deputies on 13 July, after a consensus for the draft was reached between PRD and PLD technicians. As reported in El Caribe, Diez Cabral commented that all that has been done is increase the taxable base of the existing taxes and create greater distortions for those who pay taxes. The National Business Council (CONEP) says the proposal will only make an economic recovery more difficult. Basically, the proposal increases the ITBIS (VAT) tax from 12 to 16%, increases the luxury tax on selected items and adds new taxes to the package.
Diez says that these measures are contrary to what had been expected, which was an integral reform to expand the universality of those who pay taxes and a reorganization of the tax scheme to stimulate investment and the productive sectors.
A CONEP statement urges that government spending be more rational to eliminate the evident wastefulness that transpires in the public sector. ?It is essential to guarantee, by law, that the resources we contribute are handled with honesty and that the penalties for those who evade taxes apply to government officers who endorse these violations,? he said.