The president of the Dominican Association of Builders and Promoters of House Construction (Acoprovi) complains that large-scale construction of low-cost housing promised by President Danilo Medina is not going ahead as planned because of obstacles imposed by the Department of Taxes (DGII). Fermin Acosta said that Law 189-11 for the Promotion of Mortgage Market and Trusts and its ruling establish that the DGII has to decline bonds for the construction of low-cost housing, but the institution has not yet done so.
Interviewed on Channel 11’s D’Agenda program with Hector Herrera Cabral, Acosta said that the DGII was not upholding the disposition. He said that President Medina had to issue a decree so that the Ministry of Hacienda could issue the bonds given the obstacles of the DGII. Acosta also criticized the delays in the operation of the one-stop-shop for the paperwork for the application of the trust law. He said there is a deficit of almost one million dwellings.
He said some studies show that 70% of housing is informal, and does not meet minimum construction standards. Furthermore, he said that efforts were underway to increase the number of Dominicans working in construction, an area where Haitians have found hundreds of thousands of jobs. He said that the construction sector pays the highest minimum wage and Dominican and Haitian builders are paid the same for the same work.
He said it was an urban myth that engineers hire undocumented Haitian workers so that when payday arrives they can call in the Immigration authorities to deport them in order to avoid having to pay them.
Acosta also expressed doubts about the transparency of the funds that go to the Construction Worker Pension Funds. He said Acoprovi has asked the Controller General to explain whether the directors of the entity that has handled thousands of millions of pesos meet the requirements established by the law of annual reports. He said they have had no information on this. He said that the lack of transparency becomes double taxation for the sector. Acosta went on to say that several entities with links to the construction sector have requested that the Constitutional Court issue an act of violation of the Constitution by Law 6-86 that clashes with Law 87-01. By law 6-86 construction companies have to pay 1% of all works to the fund, but this is also discounted from the workers.
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