2024 will go down in recent history Dominican Republic as a neuralgic year, which brought together the Government, businessmen and popular sectors in the National Congress to discuss the reforms applied structural measures – such as the constitutional one – and those still pending – such as the fiscal and labor ones.
This process, far from being “traumatic”, showed that there is still much to do so that all sectors continue to dialogue around strategic issues for the development nationalin the opinion of the vice president of the National Council of Private Enterprise (Conep).
“It is required, in the Dominican Republicstrengthen a space of dialogue that allows these processes of concertationand which is currently quite weakened,” he stated Caesar Dargam when referring to the Economic and Social Council (CES).
“We advocate for an institutional space, for a strengthening, transformation and modernization of CES that really allows, with the presentation of all sectors, to advance in the discussion of these issues,” said the executive.
He specified that this transcends the current Government management, since it is a concertation social system that has traditionally contributed to overcoming many crisis important and of which, currently, “there is an absence.
Looking back on the tax reformDargam maintained that the Executive Branch made a responsible decision, by withdrawing the project due to the doubts and questions it generated. He observed that, although they will not achieve consensus unanimity, to the extent that the majority of social sectors support this type of reformsthe more effective they will be.
Spent and measures tributary
He Conep suggests that, when the conditions are met to resume the fiscal modernization project, three components must be addressed:
- Expenditure efficiency
- The taking of measures administrative measures that facilitate processes – such as better inter-institutional coordination to issue statistics, include automation and digitalization to avoid overlaps in certain processes or expand electronic billing –
- The taking of measures taxes that correct distortions in the system
“We have taxes today in application that come from the Gulf War, at the beginning of the 90s, and that were due to a situation. To the extent that there have been adverse international contexts, it has generated measures additional ones that then remain over time. There is the opportunity to correct distortionsand that part of the conversation was perhaps the most sensitive,” Dargam noted.
Likewise, he maintained that it continues to be a priority to undertake inclusive public policy actions for micro, small and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) like the monotributewhich allow for the simplification of aspects of the Tax and Labor Code that translate into lower rates of informality.
Apply reforms without crisis
The president of Conep, Celso Juan Marranzinipositively valued Strategy 20236, which the Government has proposed to increase the expansion of the country’s gross domestic product to 6%.
He considered that it is time to review what has been achieved and how aspects of the National Development Strategy that allow the missing objectives to be achieved.
“Definitely, it is sometimes difficult to create awareness in the citizen sectors to do reforms at a time when, usually, the economy is growing (…); We are accustomed, perhaps, to what must be done in times of crisisbut what it is about is getting things done, without the crisis(reforms) that really have serious repercussions on the development social and well-being economy,” he argued.
This makes the Conep positively values the goals set for 2036for which it is necessary for both the Government and the economic, business and social sectors to align themselves for the next steps that must be taken to achieve it.
Conep supported the progress that the authorities have made to supervise in a coordinated manner those businesses that, by acting outside the law, represent unfair competition for local businesses, as is the case of those with Chinese capital. The verification that the amounts of imported goods that are declared in Customs coincide with the real value of the products of other competitors, that each business is up to date with Internal Taxes and increase security, immigration and health controls during commercial exchange, These are some of the measures that the union believes should continue to be strengthened to combat a complex problem that is replicated internationally.
