Higher light bill standoff stalled revisions on IMF pact

Santo Domingo. – The Government’s stand-by agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will conclude at month’s end because there’s no time left to carry out the seventh and eighth revision, Economy minister Temístocles Montas said Tuesday.

While noting that the agreement’s conclusion doesn’t affect the Government’s relations with the IMF, the official admitted that among the reasons for the stall is the entity’s position to raise the light bill 18%.

In that regard Montas said the Government determined that a higher light bill was neither timely nor adequate. “That was the discord with the Fund because it was understood that it wasn’t the only way to deal with the electrical sector’s problems.”

He said a post monitoring program starts when an agreement concludes, although the Dominican authorities and the IMF will have to agree at what moment a delegation will come to start that works, adding that that program doesn’t imply the payment of funds.