Miguel Cocco, the director general of the Customs Department, spoke at the monthly luncheon of the American Chamber of Commerce in Santo Domingo. It was an interesting talk.
According to Cocco, the Customs office has agreed with importers to recover RD$1.64 billion in unpaid taxes on imports. During his talk, Cocco also rejected the accusation made by Elena Viyella de Paliza that the government was “voracious” in its attempts to get more taxes. He called both Viyella de Paliza and Yandra Portela of the Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic “dulcineas” in reference to the ladies in the Quixote. Cocco said that apparently the Dominican society and the import sector prefer matriarchy to patriarchy, as he referred to Viyella who had called the government “greedy” for taxes and Portela who requested the government return in tax reductions the RD$4.0 billion that it has as a surplus.
Cocco said that the import sector will save RD$25 billion this year because of faster clearances through the Customs process. According to Hoy, Miguel Cocco told the audience that a “just and fair state is not possible without a just and fair system of taxation.”
Regarding the accusation made by Elena Viyella de Paliza that the state is voracious or greedy in its quest for more and more taxes, Cocco said that her comments were “unacceptable” since taxes are averaging between 15% and 16%.
On the positive side, Cocco said that Customs revenues had risen 38.2% between August and April. The spectacular increase of income over the same time frame from a year ago comes about in spite of a 32.6% increase in the value of the Dominican peso. Going from RD$22.48 billion toRD$31.07 billion over the last eight months, as compared to the same period from 2003-2004. Cocco said that if the peso had remainded at RD$42.75 to the dollar, the government’s income would have been over RD$46 billion.
Elena Viyella did not stay quiet and told reporters from the Diario Libre that her comments referred to those government officials that created new taxes such as the US$5.00 tax on airline passengers scheduled to go into effect in August, despite not having been passed by Congress. She said that the CONEP supports the efforts of the government to collect its taxes, and has proposed a reform package that does not distort the industrial or import sectors or place undue burdens on the middle class. She said that “they have to ring in to pay a lot of those that do not pay.