The Council of Ministers approved at the end of last week the proposal for the 2019 National Budget that totals RD$921,610,000,000, or US$18.4 billion. This record sum is an increase of RD $105,247,000,000 that Congress approved for the fiscal year 2018.
According to the explanation offered by the Hacienda Minister Donald Guerrero, and the Budget director, Luis Reyes, of the total the government expects to collect RD$689,930,000,000 from local sources. Total government spending is estimated at RD$765,455,000,000 with another RD$156,354,700,000 allotted to service the national debt.
Guerrero told reporters and the ministers: “The National Budget was prepared with goal of reducing the fiscal deficit for 2019, projected to be 1.9% of the non-financial public sector debt and 1.7% in the central government. Budget director Luis Reyes explained that the budgetary proposal seeks to reduce the government’s deficit from 2.2% of GDP to 1.7% of GDP.
The budget projections are based on the forecast that the Tax Agency (DGII) and the Customs Agency (DGA) will increase their collections by 4% of GDP, or RD $16 billion through better management. To facilitate the tax collections, the government is allotting RD$2.1 billion to the DGII and RD$850 million to the DGA to increase their efficiency.
One of the interesting items noted in the Diario Libre feature in the next-to-last paragraph that states that RD$1,608,000,000 is allotted for the purchase of new equipment and computer applications for the 2020 elections and an additional RD$500 million is allotted for the organization of the municipal and congressional and presidential candidates in 2020.
Follow the story in Spanish:
Diario Libre
25 September 2018
