The president of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic (AIRD), Ligia Bonetti is warning that a bill aimed at giving municipalities more autonomy, which has already been approved in a first reading by the Senate, would authorize them to charge new taxes. She said this is a threat to the competitiveness of productive sectors that would be faced with both central and municipal taxation.
The bill proposes to convert 234 municipal districts into municipalities, for a total of 390 autonomous entities. One journalist described this prospect as a “political patronage binge.”
“Our concern is not only the scale of political patronage but also how the national producers can survive the enormous fiscal pressure to be exercised when the municipalities have the right to establish local taxation, even when it is in contradiction with national taxation,” stated the business leader.
Read more in Spanish: http://www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2014/07/04/i684871_aird-proyecto-amenaza-sectores-productivos.html