Dominican Republic puts zero tax on staples

Santo Domingo.- While representatives of the merchants support the approval in the Senate of the bill that taxes food products at a zero rate for six months, with a new paragraph that empowers a commission to limit the items to be imported with quantitative limits, the business sector remains dissatisfied and so do the opposition parties.

Yesterday, the Minister of Agriculture, Limber Cruz, explained that an import commission for agricultural products, made up of the entity  he represents, the Ministries of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs, and the Treasury, and Customs, among others, will filter the articles that will be imported with the tariff cessation rate to only bring what “the country needs and requires and has a deficit, not to bring what is abundant and what is in production.”

Iván García, president of the Dominican Federation of Merchants (FDC), agrees with the existence of a commission. “Because in this way the necessary amounts of agricultural products that do not affect local production will enter, specifically in the case of chickens,” he said. “In addition, the import of garlic from China and pinto beans must be limited, so that an exorbitant amount is not imported.”