2013 – Page 73

Superintendence of Banks Rafael Camilo has announced a reduction in the interest rate charged for credit cards. He said the interest would be gradually reduced from the current 7% monthly charge (84% annual charge) to 4.5% (54%) by 2015. In October, banks may only charge 5.5% interest rate on credit card financing. By June 2014, …

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Minister of Culture Jose Antonio Rodriguez and Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito have announced the start of a program to create the National Penitentiary Symphonic Orchestra. The orchestra will be directed by Jose Antonio Molina. In a statement made yesterday, Tuesday 15 October, the Minister said that he expects the program to produce good musicians. …

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Minister of Defense Sigfrido Pared Perez says that the wall being built by Haitian authorities on the border with the Dominican Republic will not represent any inconvenience for Dominican military. He said Haiti is within its rights to erect a wall as part of their efforts to charge more taxes. “The most important thing for …

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Deputies fast-tracked the modifications to the social security law 187-01 to reduce the commission charged by the Administrators of Pension Plans to 15% down from 30% in the past. The motion was passed yesterday, Tuesday 15 October with votes from 134 of 178 legislators in a first reading and 144 votes in the second reading. …

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Dominicans are using the two Santo Domingo metro lines much more than was expected. OPRET (metro office) deputy director Leonel Carrasco says that more cars needed to be added due to the increase in the number of passengers using the service. He said that Opret had expected 135,000 people to travel on the Metro, but …

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Writing in today’s El Caribe, Wednesday 16 October, Economist Pavel Isa Contreras lists the three forces that have kidnapped the national budget. They are: political patronage, the electricity sector, and economic interests of businesses that benefit from tax exemptions. He said the budget is still affected by the ghost of the bank fraud in 2003 …

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A report in Diario Libre today, Wednesday 16 October, reveals details of the mass drug trafficking trade that has become a central part of barrio life in slums across the country. Police chief Major General Manuel Castro Castillo says that 75% of crimes and murders committed in the country are drug-related. He said that anti-drug …

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The Dominican Organization of Blind People (ODC) is calling on the city government to clear up the obstacles on the sidewalks. A group of blind people held a protest march along Av. Abraham Lincoln to the City Government (ADN) calling for the government to make city sidewalks safe for the blind. He said they have …

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Dominican zapote producers are exporting dried and powdered zapote to the US to make cereals and smoothies. The Cluster del Zapote in the provinces of Espaillat (Moca) and Hermanas Mirabal (Salcedo), which has 516 members, went from being a farm cluster to an industrial one. The producers had been affected by a ban on whole …

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Heart specialist Dr. Hector E. Mateo has criticized Dominican doctors for sending patients to have an excessive amount of tests. He says that many of these tests are unnecessary because the problems suffered are just due to their aging process. He criticized the fact that medicine today has lost a lot of the human touch. …

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