2004 – Page 120

If the VAT tax-base is amplified, the poorest 20% of the population will pay more in proportion to their income than the wealthiest 20%. El Caribe takes a look at this situation, and finds that the VAT (ITBIS in the local terminology) is the single largest income producer for the government. The tax on consumer …

Read more…

Economist, diplomat and businessman Bernardo Vega is rarely, if ever, funny. In today?s editorial piece in El Caribe, however, Vega exhibits just a wee bit of wit. Calling his piece ?It could have been worse,? he proceeds to show how the government could easily have spent another US$1.24 billion in foreign-loan money on everything from …

Read more…

Persia Alvarez, the director of the Pension Plan System in the DR, favors investing the RD$5.5 billion in savings in the system in the electricity sector. She told Hoy newspaper that her department is also considering other productive areas, such as technology companies, small business and infrastructural works. Inflation in 2003 practically wiped out the …

Read more…

The 28 geriatric facilities that normally receive government subsidies to provide their care for the elderly are currently experiencing a very serious lack of funding. El Caribe says that they are worn out by the constant lack of funding. The economic crisis has increased their costs by 60%, but the government has apparently cut their …

Read more…

Although extremely active during the months leading up to the presidential election in May, the National Price Stabilization Institute (INESPRE) has all but stopped its operations. El Caribe newspaper points out that the subsidized rice sales were discontinued on 15 May, one day before the election, and have not been resumed. Previously, INESPRE outlets also …

Read more…

Journalist Ana Mitila Lora comments today in her ?Mochila al Hombro? column in the Listin Diario on news reports that it was business wheeler-and-dealer Luis Alvarez Renta who had requested that President Hipolito Mejia resign from his post. Lora says this should not surprise anyone, however, and she describes Alvarez Renta as a ?patriot.? The …

Read more…

President Hipolito Mejia said yesterday that he is unsure whether he will sign the DR?s Free Trade Agreement with the United States or not. These comments were made during a visit to the Santo Domingo Zoo where the President was on hand to inaugurate several new roads, a cage for Siberian bears left behind by …

Read more…

President-elect Leonel Fernandez said that exports are the key to the DR?s future. The incoming PLD statesman was speaking at the public release of a series of studies on competitiveness in the Dominican Republic coordinated by Sachs, when he was director of the Center for International Development of Harvard University. Sachs is today the director …

Read more…

Former governor of the Central Bank and leading PRSC director, Guillermo Caram is campaigning for the incoming government to drastically reduce its spending by RD$1.8 billion a month instead of increasing taxes to meet the RD$22 billion deficit. Caram on TV news programs said that while Congress debates the tax reform proposal, the incoming PLD …

Read more…

Participacion Ciudadana, a leading civic society group, said the incoming government will submit to a trial by fire (?prueba de fuego?) when dealing with the bank collapse case. Alfonso Abreu Collado of PC told El Caribe it will put the PLD?s anti-corruption talk to the test. He criticized the present monetary and financial authorities? handling …

Read more…