Ruling party leaders butt heads on IMF-light bill row

Santo Domingo.- Just hours after Senate president Reinaldo Pared’s affirmation Thursday that the Government won’t raise the electric bill, the Economy Minister clarified that it’s the economic cabinet’s call regarding the talks with the International Monetary Fund.

Temístocles Montas said while Pared has every right to speak on the issue, in representation of the ruling PLD party, in the end it’s the Government’s economic cabinet which will conduct the talks with the IMF.

“We’re negotiating, the IMF can make a suggestion, but in the end it must hear the Dominican Government opinions,” the Economy Minister told reporters after his dissertation in the Dominican Republic Investment Forum.

On Thursday morning Pared affirmed that president Leonel Fernandez prefers to break with the IMF rather than increase the cost of electricity by 18%, as the IMF demands.