1996News

Customs revenues increase

The Customs Directorate has announced that its revenues increased in 1995 by 11.5 percent over the previous year. The department reported that its collections amounted to RD$8,635 million. Import duties accounted for 95.6 percent of the total while duties on foreign trade amounted to 37.6 percent, a decrease of 3.4 percent. The government depends heavily on duties levied on foreign trade to finance its budget. This has been vehemently criticized by many economists who see it as a dangerous situation for the nation’s economic prosperity. The government is seeking to increase inland revenue to remedy this problem.