The National Council for Private Enterprise (CONEP) alongside the Young Entrepreneurs? Association (ANJE) are calling for a quick approval of the tax reform package. The two organizations are appealing for an ?urgent? ratification of the tax package currently under study in the Chamber of Deputies ?in the least amount of time possible.? Elena Viyella de Paliza, CONEP?s president, told reporters from El Caribe, among others, that the urgency stems from the need to resume the IMF agreement. Manuel Diez Cabral, the president of ANJE, said that in spite of not being completely in agreement with all of the new tax proposals, his group ?is aware of the need to pass the legislation in the briefest possible time? as the only way to get the IMF accord back on track. This new flexibility from ANJE?s leader is in marked contrast to his earlier statements that predicted a recession if the bill were passed as it stands. He had said earlier that the project was not a medium- or long-range instrument for development and only represented an enlarged tax burden for ?those who always pay.? Viyella de Paliza called for unity and a hiatus from putting personal or individual interests above all else.
As proposed by a team of PLD economists, and presented by President Hipolito Mejia to the Chamber of Deputies, the tax reform bill considerably increases the burden of those that are already paying taxes in order to fill a RD$22 billion deficit the government envisions for this year.