One of the lawyers representing Barrick Pueblo Viejo, Eduardo Prats, in the Constitutional Court where the case is being heard, says the gold and silver mine contract does not allow for increases in taxation. However, other experts believe there may be loopholes that would permit this. Trajano Potentini of the Foundation for Justice and Transparency adds that what may apply to Barrick would affect all other mining companies.
The president of the Alianza Dominicana Contra la Corruption (Adocco), Julio Cesar de la Rosa Tiburcio believes that the President can submit the legislation. “This would not break with the principle of non-retroactivity of a law, because it is an act of the state as set out in the Constitution, backed by the sovereign power of our institutions.”
Lawyer Eduardo Jorge Prats says: “The contract between the government and Pueblo Viejo Dominicana (PVDC) has a clause that exempts PVDC from new taxation, a tax exemption that according to Art. 244 of the Constitution PVDC can enjoy for the duration of the concession or the contract and a new law cannot modify this without endangering the fundamental right to non-retroactivity of the law and judicial security consecrated in Art. 110 of the Constitution.”
He said that the law proposed by Medina would be an indirect expropriation of PVDC and a breach of the contract by the state with all the consequences this would bring.
Presidential legal advisor Cesar Pina Toribio would not go on record with his opinion or say when the new law would be sent to Congress.
The 25-year mining concession at Pueblo Viejo is 60% owned by Barrick Gold and 40% by Canadian company Goldcorp.
www.elcaribe.com.do/2013/03/01/juristas-apoyan-que-aplique-impuesto-barrick