The head of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Economic Development Unit, Willy Zapata, and the lead economist of the World Bank’s Global Group for Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management, Fernando Blanco, are recommending guidelines to be incorporated in a comprehensive taxation reform.
Zapata and Blanco made their comments during the II Congress of Banking and Economy in Latin America (CLEC 2014) sponsored by the Association of Commercial Banks of the Dominican Republic (ABA) and the Latin American Federation of Banks (Felaban) that is taking place yesterday and today, Thursday 30 n Friday 31 October 2014 at the Central Bank auditorium in Santo Domingo.
The economists believe that the Dominican Republic has room to improve its taxation policies, but the government needs to continue pushing for more efficient spending, strengthening the taxation administration and ensuring the legality of collecting these taxes. They said that any changes in fiscal policy must be accompanied by an improvement in the composition of public spending. “Nobody wants to pay for a five star hotel and receive a two star hotel service,” said the senior economists.