No agreement was reached during a meeting between top PRD representatives and the government’s economic team regarding the proposed tax reform bill in Congress. The bill is meant to identify new sources for the collection of more than RD$30 billion that the government will stop receiving when DR-CAFTA comes into effect on 1 January 2006. Listin Diario reports that the PRD members are insisting that the taxes in the proposed reform are unnecessary whereas the government technicians insist that they are unavoidable to compensate for the abolition of the exchange rate commission and tariffs. The meeting was held at Hotel El Embajador and was attended by PRD President Rafael Alburquerque, Secretary General Orlando Jorge Mera, and Arturo Martinez Moya, Andres Dahuajre and Jaime Aristy for the PRD. The government was represented by Presidency Technical Secretary Temistocles Montas, Customs Director Miguel Cocco, and Tax Department Director Juan Hernandez. They agreed to hold another meeting as the PRD representatives said they had to consult with the party commissions before taking a definite decision.
According to Hoy, Montas stated that if the tax reform bill is truncated, the reduction of the government’s income may affect the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He explained that lawmakers are proposing modifications to the bill that would reduce collections by RD$7 billion of the expected RD$32 billion.