The Ministry of Tourism concluded its current hearings and proposed that the proposed US$5 tax on airline tickets be postponed until April 2005. One such request came from the National Association of Hotels and Restaurants (ASONAHORES), which asked that the Ministry not distort the tour packages that were already on the market for this year’s high season, particularly the Christmas season’s boom in travel. According to the Diario Libre, this was the decisive opinion that allowed Minister Felix Jimenez to agree to the postponement of the tax. The government would purportedly have used the money generated by the tax to improve the drainage systems and roads in the major tourist areas on the East and North Coasts. The roadways to be improved are the highway to Cabarete and the boulevard from Punta Cana to Bavaro.