The Dominican hotel sector, as represented by ASONAHORES, the association of hotels and restaurants, is willing to forego the privileges it receives under the Tourism Incentive Law 158-01 if these privileges are granted just to those hotels and services that are located in the least developed tourism areas. According to El Caribe, this could happen if the tax reform proposals now being studied include the sector’s main recommendations, which are a VAT rate of just 8% on their goods and services and a 0.5% tax on real estate, whether in the name of a corporation or a person. The sector had been widely criticized for leaving the discussion table discussing the tax package. Until now, the group had not identified a source for the government to recover the funds that would be lost if the government were to accept their proposals. In VAT alone the government would lose in the neighborhood of RD$700 million, according to Enrique de Marchena Kaluche, the head of ASONAHORES. The Tourism Minister Felix Jimenez, revealed yesterday in a television interview on Diario Libre A.M. that the government has sacrificed RD$1.4 billion in revenues because of the Tourism Incentive Law. Rafael Blanco Canto, a former president of ASONHAORES, said that the sector was in agreement that the benefits of the law should go to those “areas least developed for tourism, such as Pedernales, Montecristi or Samana.” De Marchena said that they were not talking about the revocation of the law, just an amendment that would focus the benefits of the law towards specific places. The hotel sector made a formal presentation of their proposal to Minister Jimenez and to the Technical Affairs Minister Temistocles Montas as well as the director of the Department of Taxes Juan Hernandez.