2008 – Page 351

The Ministry of Tourism has sent the Interior and Police Ministry a memo stating that the Hispaniola Hotel is not a five-star hotel as had been reported. This means that LED night club, located within the hotel, and which operates 24 hours a day, despite the time limits on alcohol sales currently in place, might …

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Dominican banana producers received the financing they were promised by President Leonel Fernandez, which will help the sector to recover on a large scale. The financing will be processed through Banco Agricola and is for an initial RD$400 million at a 6% annual interest rate. Fernandez made the promise to the sector after banana plantations …

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The Tax Department (DGII) has announced that as from the first week of February the Sworn Declarations for Wage-earners Retention Agents [Declaraciones Juradas Anuales del Agente de Retencion de Asalariados] (IR-13), and rectification options for the 2007 fiscal year will be reported online through the Social Security Treasury (TSS). This will be done once the …

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The PRD party took the opportunity yesterday to answer PLD accusations that presidential candidate Miguel Vargas Maldonado is a corrupt candidate by making counter-accusations. The PRD is claiming that President Leonel Fernandez has ignored the law, has avoided discussing it and has used his subordinates to try and defame the opposition party. During a press …

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The recent decision by city councilors in Santiago and San Cristobal to give themselves pay raises continues to cause uproar. The Padre Juan Montalvo Social Studies Center says that the wage increases violate Law 176-07. The Center called the raises “shameful” describing them as “an abuse of power which puts the moral and ethics of …

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Rodrigo Varillas, an expert from the Santo Domingo Technological Institute (INTEC) says that investors in the renewable energy sector need guarantees that there won’t be theft in the renewable energy sector. Energy theft, Hoy writes, currently totals US$600 million annually, equivalent to 1.7% of the GDP. Varillas, who is taking part in the DR’s first …

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The National Dominican Workers’ Confederation (CNTD) has announced that it plans to create a new entity, the Freight Transport Federation in the next few days, with the hopes of ending FENATRADO’s long-standing monopoly in the freight sector. Jacobo Ramos, secretary general of the new entity, is quoted in Hoy saying that the creation of the …

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President of the National Hotel and Restaurants Worker’s Union (UNATRAHOREST) Pedro Pena Fana has expressed his opposition to a bill that seeks to eliminate a 10% tax that is added to restaurant customers’ bills. The proposal, which was submitted to the Chamber of Deputies by Deputy Luis Gonzalez Sanchez, aims to modify articles 228,229 and …

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We would like to correct an error published in yesterday’s news. Julia Alvarez, one of the nominees for the US National Book Critics Circle Award, is not Dominican-born, but was born in New York to Dominican parents, and then returned to the DR as a baby. We apologize for this mistake.

Dominican baseball player Miguel Tejada could be in a lot of trouble. The star infielder, who recently signed with the Houston Astros and is helping the Aguilas in their quest for another Winter League Championship, has emphatically denied reports that he used performance-enhancing drugs. Listin Diario quotes Tejada as saying “I’m clean.” But the troubles …

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