While the Chamber of Deputies has focused on the fact that it is only RD$20 per telephone line, and that’s just pennies, several media outlets have done the math and this means that the 911 program would be collecting RD$52 million a month.
The general public has been rejecting the additional tax for a new 911 emergency phone line service. The main opposition comes from critics who say that the new system will just connect to other government services that may not have the funding to meet the demand.
Acento.com.do says that the Dominican Telecommunications Institute (Indotel) has 1,024,882 residential telephone lines and another 1,601,240 mobile phones with fixed billing. The bill, which has already passed in the Senate establishes levying the RD$20 duty on each fixed telephone line bill.
The funds would also be used to install 1,000 surveillance cameras, 300 of which would be installed in the Colonial City.
Acento reports that on August 2012, the South Korean ambassador in the Dominican Republic and the director of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (AMET) signed a protocol to modernize transport in Santo Domingo that included smart traffic lights and security cameras. South Korea was providing a loan for US$36 million for the equipment that would be purchased by the Dominican government. The loan was payable in 40 years, with one year’s grace period at an interest rate of 0.2% of 1%, as El Nuevo Diario reported at the time.
Indotel president Carlos Amarante Baret has gone public to say he opposes the imposition of the RD$20 tax on users who have fixed charges in their telephone bills, as reported in Diario Libre. Amarante, a close aide to President Medina, opposes more charges on telephone bills. Telecom service users already pay 18% ITBIS, 2% for funding telecommunications advances, and 10% luxury tax, for a total tax of 30%.
Amarante is in favor of the project, but is opposed to funding it by imposing an additional duty on telecom users. “It does not make political or economic sense at this time,” he said.
www.diariolibre.com/destacada/2013/04/22/i380246_indotel-rechaza-cobro-impuesto-rd20-para-instalacion-del-911.html