Yesterday the government agreed upon an austerity program that prohibits institutions from increasing their debts with banks and suppliers and instructed them to plan their expenditure according to their most basic needs, as a way of ensuring that by the end of June the non-financial public sector will end up with a RD$332 million surplus. According to a report in Listin Diario, the measures arose during a Government Cabinet meeting led by President Leonel Fernandez in the Presidential Palace. Collecting agencies were instructed to ensure that there would not be a decrease in collections with the country’s entry into DR-CAFTA, still planned for July 1st. The government considerably increased taxes in January 2006 to compensate for an estimated RD$7 billion in import duties that it argued would be loss with the implementation of the treaty at the start of the year. The treaty’s implementation was postponed for 1 July, but it is unlikely the country will be ready for it.