Guillermo Caram, a former governor of the Central Bank and leading PRSC politician, expressed today his wish that legislators reject the tax reform proposal being studied in Congress. He hopes the bill presented by the PLD technicians, based on recommendations made by economists that the Mejia government had contracted, be rejected by the members of Congress and voiced his hopes that this reform take the same route as the tax package presented by the PLD government in 1996, which was rejected ? which he viewed as a blessing for Dominicans and for that first Fernandez government.
He hopes the legislators do not buy the false argument that the new taxes are being demanded by the IMF, realizing that what is behind the proposals are the special-interest parties that stand to benefit. Caram said that the legislators have the negative results for the economy of previous congressional complacency on their side.
Caram also highlighted that the hasty approval of bills only makes them vulnerable to subsequent changes, referring to the monetary bill that made changes in social security and now needs to be changed again, and the border development bill that was overly generous with tax exemptions.