The question of whether the 2012 taxation bill will be given Organic Law treatment in Congress is next up for debate in Congress. If it is treated as an ordinary bill, only a simple majority will be necessary. If it is given Organic Law treatment, a two-thirds majority vote in Congress will be necessary.
The PRD opposition party expects its members will have a say in the passing of the taxation package proposed by the ruling PLD government. The argument is that the 2010 Constitution, in its Art. 112 on Organic laws in its definition establishes that laws that regulate the economic and financial system shall require the affirmative vote of two thirds of the members present in both houses of Congress for approval or amendment.
While the PLD has a clear majority in the Senate with 31 of 32 seats, in the Chamber of Deputies there are 97 PLD deputies, 79 PRD deputies, 5 from the PRSC and 5 from minority parties acting as allies to larger political parties. Thus, the PLD does not have the necessary two-thirds majority to pass the bill without the vote of at least some of the PRD deputies.
The PRD is standing by the fiscal reform meriting the vote of two thirds of Congress.
Nevertheless, PRD deputy Jorge Frias, in a row at Congress in the presence of businesspeople who visited to lobby for fewer taxes, said it was highly likely that the tax package would be passed. In the past eight years, the PRD legislators have given their approval to most government proposed legislation. “This Congress, almost in its totality, follows the government guidelines,” he said, as reported in El Dia.
The PLD deputies are blaming the PRD government under former President Hipolito Mejia (2000-2004) for the present fiscal debt of RD$187 billion that the government seeks to cover with an increase in taxes.