The PLD, victorious in the May election, says it is willing to consider a broadening of the ITBIS (value-added tax) base and might well introduce other changes in the proposed legislation now being studied in the lower house of Congress. PLD representatives have said that this new position is in response to the many observations made by various economic players. The PLD?s economic team, however, is dead set on getting the RD$20 billion needed to start the economic recovery. According to El Caribe, Rafael Camilo, a member of the transition team for the PLD, gave out this information after meeting with the Finance Commission of the Chamber of Deputies. Camilo said that one of the topics concerned was Article 341 of the proposal, which, in addition to elevating the VAT from 12% to 16%, would enforce a 20% tax on rentals (whether property or chattel), a 15% tax on interest earned from bank deposits, a repeal of Law 28-01 which created the special tax privileges for businesses near the Dominican-Haitian frontier and a minimum-wage increase. Camilo told reporters that certain parts of the proposal could be changed, as long as the total projected income remained the same. He said that the RD$22-billion figure was needed to close the fiscal deficit and that the tax reform package would make this a reality towards the end of this year. Marino Collante, the head of the Finance Commission, praised the PLD?s efforts to make some needed changes on what he called ?mistakes? in the original proposal submitted to the Congress.