2004 – Page 154

The Direccion General de Impuestos Internos (DGII) reports that tax collections were 62% more from January to May of this year than for the same period in 2003. Revenues increased to RD$26 billion, up from RD$16 billion in 2003, representing a veritable windfall for the Mejia administration. Government tax revenues were also 19% more than …

Read more…

President Hipolito Mejia again eschewed his commitments regarding the fiscal reform, which was meant to have been presented as a first draft in March 2004 and a final version scheduled to be submitted to Congress. The Mejia administration had made these commitments as part of the IMF Standby Agreement. As reported in Hoy newspaper today, …

Read more…

President-elect Leonel Fernandez announced the inception of a team of technicians who will work with the National Council of Business (CONEP) to prepare the tax reform bill for presentation to Congress, as reported in Hoy newspaper. CONEP executives and their economists Bernardo Vega and Pedro Silverio met yesterday with Fernandez and PLD technicians Temistocles Montas, …

Read more…

Industry & Commerce Minister Sonia Guzman said that the US-DR Free Trade Agreement is a closed issue. She said that the debates regarding sugar imports and exports and other topics covered in the negotiations ?were duly concluded on 15 March 2004,? as reported in Hoy newspaper. Guzman was the head of the Dominican negotiating team. …

Read more…

The government authorized the Banco de Reservas to lend the Dominican Institute of Social Security (IDSS) a sum of RD$150 million to pay May wages and expenses pending for April, May and June. Dr. William Jana Tactuk, the director of the IDSS, made the announcement. Medics had announced work stoppages to protest the delays in …

Read more…

Santiago students participated in protests yesterday to denounce a bill being presented by the Executive Branch that would effectively remove the protected status of several environmentally fragile areas belonging to national parks. President Hipolito Mejia supports the commercial development of these areas. Members of the Sociedad Ecologica del Cibao (SOECI), Juventud Ecologica and middle-school students …

Read more…

As was generally expected, after the artificial good days that led into the election, power blackouts have returned with a vengeance. The real truth behind the spate of blackouts is financial. Power generators are supplying lesser amounts of electricity as they await payments on arrears owed by the government-run Edesur and Edenorte power distribution companies. …

Read more…

Ramon Tejada Holguin, the former president of Participacion Ciudadana, says he could not believe it when he read that the judges at the Central Electoral Board (JCE) favor the unification of the presidential election with the congressional and municipal elections. A proposal was made to extend the present legislators? four-year term for an additional two …

Read more…

The young man who paraded naked in an SUV along Abraham Lincoln Avenue last year received a sentence of five days in jail and a fine of RD$5 in court. Ruben Dario Santana Polanco was found guilty of exhibitionism, which is punishable under Article 331-1 of the Penal Code. District attorney Leonora Martinez Conde had …

Read more…

President-elect Leonel Fernandez would like big-name Dominican baseball players to increase their ties to the Dominican Republic for the benefit of the country. ?We believe we can host Major League Baseball games here, as Japan and Puerto Rico have done, because we have quality ballplayers. Also, we are the second country with the most players …

Read more…