The coordinator of the Government’s Social Policies Cabinet, Tony Peña Guaba, He warned yesterday that playing with social aid is playing with the stability and peace of the country. He recognizes that salary indexation is necessary, but says that this “cannot be done against the grain of social welfare.”
He affirmed that the proposal of Senator Omar Fernández and other opposition sectors to index income tax (ISR) of RD$52,000 per month and review the targeting of social programs with which the State reflects a partial vision of the national socioeconomic reality.
The official pointed out that the Dominican Republic has achieved sustained growth that positions it today as the ninth economy on the American continent, and the seventh in Latin America, and is advancing at an accelerated pace competing with nations with a large territorial area and greater amount of natural resources.
However, he said that this progress poses a great challenge, which is growing while reducing the poverty and inequality gaps that still persist.
“We cannot look the other way or forget generations of Dominicans who, due to age or lack of schooling, have been left behind from progress; the state has the moral and social obligation to reach out to them, to offer opportunities and to guarantee minimum conditions of well-being,” Peña Guaba stressed in a document.
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He stated that programs such as the Supérate card, electricity, gas, school, mother, emergency and Christmas bonuses, as well as food rations, affordable canteens, student transportation or solidarity pensions “represent the difference between dignity and despair for thousands of households, so reducing these would be a direct blow to the most vulnerable sectors of the country.”
He clarified that this does not mean opposing improving salaries, “but doing so without sacrificing the programs that support millions of Dominicans. As the people say; we can remove the nail without breaking the board,” Peña Guaba pointed out.
In that sense, he favored a discussion on salary indexation to strengthen the income of the middle and working class, but maintained that “it is incongruous” to propose it at the expense of reducing social aid that benefits nearly five million Dominicans.
“Why not also discuss a review of subsidies and tax exemptions that benefit certain business sectors that have already fulfilled their role? Why propose adjustments only on the side of the poor and not those of the rest?” Peña Guaba asked.
He pointed out that in a country that grows and advances like the Dominican Republic, “development will make sense if no one is left behind.”
