Sees tax increments for Dominicans contradict Free Trade demands

http://www.dominicantoday.com 23/11/06

Santo Domingo.-The president of the Chamber of Commerce and Production in Santiago, the country’s second larges city, stated that government’s intention to increase tax revenues, is contrary to demands that implementation of the Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) will bring upon the national economy.

Ricardo Fondeur said that one of the main factors determining the recovery has been in essence the trust in the performance of the economy.

Notwithstanding, the proposal to dismount tax rates approved during the last tax reform, is an element that corrodes trust and induces to incompliance.

Fondeur also considered that concentrating the country’s meager resources available for social investment, in a localized and specific project such as the Santo Domingo Metro, leaves hundreds of communities unattended throughout the national territory, which cry out for attention on basic problems and that in no way will benefit from the immense sacrifice that the Metro represents.

The entrepreneur stated that, in the face of the government’s expressed need for resources, the moment has come to consider offering this mega-project for bidding, so that authorities can liberate funds and invest in social works.