Economists warn: 2019 Budget bill’s fiscal deficit will raise public debt

Santo Domingo.- The Dominican College of Economists on Tues. warned that the 2019 Budget bill submitted by the Government includes a fiscal deficit that will raise the public debt, which accounted for 49.3% of GDP as of June 2018.

“The authorities should make the necessary efforts to avoid incurring fiscal deficit, because that is one of the main causes of the accelerated growth of public debt,” the economists said.

In a statement to Listin Diario, College president, Alejandro de Jesús, said that it’s necessary to make more efficient the management of the revenue agencies to avert “the strong evasion and dodging of taxes, since it is estimated that in our country the ITBIS evasion is greater than 40%.”

De Jesus noted that the country needs an integral Tax Code reform to dismantle existing exemptions and exonerations, through which he affirms that tax expenditures estimated at RD$234.6 billion granted for this year were 6.1% of GDP.