Journalist Francisco Medrano is asking that the Pro-Pedernales Trust fund that passed in the same bill that approved the controversial Punta Catalina power plant trust be withdrawn from the Senate for amendments.
Journalist Francisco Medrano criticized the clauses that establish a special tax treatments for investors. Medrano disputes the clause that relieves the investors and builders from paying for government permits or taxes. He says this is a mortal blow to the Pedernales municipality.
Francisco Medrano made it clear that he is in no way opposed to the initiatives developed by the authorities for the tourist development of Pedernales, but he understands that these cannot further affect the municipalities that already suffer from budgetary limitations.
He said that with the eventual start of tourism investments in Pedernales, the demand for services to the municipalities will also increase and they will not be in the economic capacity to respond if the most dynamic sector, the new tourism industry, does not contribute to the municipality.
Likewise, he warned that clause number 42 of the Pro-Pedernales trust contract is in contradiction with the Dominican Constitution which in its article 200 establishes that the municipalities may establish taxes in their territory. He said the Constitution defines the local administration as legal persons of Public Law, responsible for their actions, which enjoy their own patrimony, budgetary autonomy, with regulatory, administrative and land use powers.
“We cannot undress one saint to dress another,” said Medrano. He said the trust will negatively impact the local governments of Pedernales, Oviedo and the municipal districts of Juancho and José Francisco Peña Gómez because in the contract the municipal authorities are prevented from collecting taxes for the operations developed there.
The Pro-Pedernales Trust contract was approved in the Chamber of Deputies on the same day that the Punta Catalina trust contract was approved and is awaiting approval in the Senate.
Francisco Medrano says the Pedernales Trust should be subjected to a deep analysis before its approval by the Senate to ensure that it becomes a true instrument for the development and progress opportunities for the localities that will be impacted by it.
What the contract says:
42.4.- Taxes on Construction. The Trustee shall be exempt from any taxes established on construction, rates, fees, duties, charges and excise taxes established in Law No. 687, which creates a System of Construction Regulations. 687, which creates a Regulatory System for Engineering, Architecture and related branches dated July twenty-seventh (27) of the month of July of the year nineteen hundred and eighty-two (1982), and its implementing regulations; as well as any other legislation that has been created or to be created, that affects the construction with the collection of taxes, rates, rights, charges or fees, including any other taxes on the construction services or other related services provided for the benefit of the project, in the processing of construction permits, environmental viability and other governmental authorizations required to execute the works for which it was constituted. The payment of any fee or registration fee that may apply, will be charged at the rate corresponding to contracts without amount. This will apply to the operations of collection companies associated through the electronic payment system.
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31 January 2022