Dominican Republic to take US$85.5M ‘shadow toll’ to court

Santo Domingo.-  In response to the request made by the Executive Power to study the legality and equity of the contract for the construction of the highway to Samaná, the lawyer Emmanuel Esquea Guerrero recommended that the case be submitted to the Justice Ministry and seek the authorization of a judge for the State to occupy and control said road, for which thousands of pesos must be budgeted to subsidize the “shadow toll.”

In the budget for 2022, of RD$4.5 billion (US$85.5 million) allocated for the shadow toll with which the Government covers the deficit of vehicular traffic registered on the road to the concessionaire.

The amount exceeds that which would be allocated individually to ministries such as Sports, Women, Labor, Culture, Youth and Energy and Mines, the Accounts Chamber, the Constitutional Court and others.

“The Government should not pay a penny of that, a penny; that they (the concessionaire) owe to the Dominican Republic,” Esquea told Diario Libre yesterday. “That’s why I suggested that they send him to the Justice Ministry, because there are all the elements of a crime.”