The much discussed ITBIS, the Dominican version of Value Added Tax – VAT, if applied at 16% on all goods and services, has the potential to generate RD$62.8 billion pesos for the national treasury. This is the number that appears in the proposed tax reform legislation that President Leonel Fernandez submitted to Congress. It shows that during 2004, a total sales report totaled RD$718,178 billion of which 53% was said to be tax exempt. The report says that these numbers show that the potential tax value of the VAT proposal will “exceed RD$62 billion.” Just coffee, cooking oils and sugar will bring in a reported RD$4.0 billion according to the Internal Revenue office. Over the first nine months of the year, VAT taxes have increased by 41%, and brought in over RD$19.2 billion, an increase of RD$5.6 billion more than the same period for 2004. Juan Hernandez, the head of Internal Revenue, said that the increase was largely due to the anti-evasion plan that started in January 2005.