The government has surpassed its taxation expectations for the first two months of the year. The collections include revenue from the major increase in taxation levied on Dominicans to compensate for the government’s spending spree during the final months of the previous PLD administration that left upwards of a US$187 million deficit. Hundreds of food items that were previously tax-exempt are now taxed.
The Department of Taxes (DGII) said that collections in January and February were RD$46.67 billion, which is 108.3% of the estimate, and is a 21.6% increase compared to 2012.
In January 2013, RD$23.93 billion was collected, for a 12.9% increase compared to the same period in 2012. This represented 99.9% of the amount budgeted, or RD$25.5 million less.
Revenues boomed in February, totaling RD$22.7 billion, or RD$3.6 billion more than estimated, for a 32.3% increase over the previous year.
When RD$2.5 billion in bank advances is deducted, February’s tax revenue performance was 17.8%, or RD$1.1 billion more than forecast, for a 105.8% fulfillment of budgeted government revenues.
The DGII says that Tax Reform Law 253-12 generated an additional RD$90.8 million in December 2012, RD$578.5 million in January and RD$929.4 million in February. As of 26 February, the Fiscal Amnesty had generated RD$1.2 billion, of which RD$751.1 million were for debt, RD$447.3 million for omitted payments and RD$8.8 million for corrected asset calculations.
The DGII expects a good year. It reports that property taxes were up 123.8%, with RD$3.18 billion more than last year. Tax on company profits was up 51.9%, or RD$2.17 billion more than last year. The ITBIS (sales tax) increased 26.1% for the first two months of the year, generating RD$2.4 billion more than last year.
Earlier, the DGII had reported that tax revenues were up 20.6% compared to 2011, or RD$42.4 billion more. Total tax revenue performance was RD$248.47 billion, 98.1% of what was budgeted for 2012.
During PLD administrations tax collections have consistently gone up with Dominicans paying more and more. What has been questioned is the efficiency of spending, with abnormally high levels of wasteful spending by the administrations, as reflected by the country’s ranking of 144th on a list of 144 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index 2012-2013.