Deputies Pelegrin Castillo and Jose Ricardo Taveras of the Fuerza Nacional Progresista (FNP) requested that President Leonel Fernandez revise the tax regime that now taxes the import of computers. They said to now tax computers and software is to step backwards. The taxes on computers and software had been eliminated in 1990 by way of Law 345, but were reinstated by the government in its fiscal reform implemented starting 1 January 2006.
They also advocated that the country move towards a broadband system, and that this become an objective of high national priority.
They announced they were sending to Congress a bill to promote the use of open code, and the formation of programmers. They feel this could create 100,000 additional jobs in the next ten years.
In an editorial on Sunday, Hoy newspaper commented that while the government of President Leonel Fernandez seeks to be known as an administration that supports the development of informatics and new technologies, the governmental decision to tax computers and software is indeed a set back.
“As individuals and collectively, Dominicans need to have increasingly more access to the computer and the Internet,” establishes the editorial writer. “Without these media widely available, there will be no way to stimulate competitiveness in a world that is rapidly changes with technological advances,” writes the newspaper. The editorial concludes that “computers should be tax-free.” It states that: “No administrative measure, nor unclear application of laws, should work against the purchase at favorable prices of these tools that are essential for progress.”