INTRANT maintains license renewal for seniors every two years, but reducing cost

Santo Domingo – If you are over 65 years of age and you go to renew your license at one of the points assigned by the National Institute of Transit and Land Transportation (Intrant), the answer is that you must pay RD$1,900 for two years. This is the opposite of those under that rank, who are approved for a four-year period. This provokes indignation, which reaches the Palace, and President Luis Abinader affirms that this provision will be eliminated.

However, the episode described above is not fictitious. It happened to a senior citizen after the President’s pronouncements, so what was promised has not yet been fulfilled. That is why we went straight to the source, meeting in the offices of Intrant with Jhonattan Chevalier, cabinet director, and Raquel de la Rosa, legal director.

For them, it was a specific question: exactly if the regulation still in force needs legal mechanisms to be repealed or why it continues to be enforced. Both agreed that the provision would be adjusted next week, on which legal and administrative issues are being worked on, which will establish new rates, but the duration will remain as it is.

The renewal after two years is seen as double taxation for many, but in their defense, officials say this is not the correct interpretation. “We are not necessarily, although it has been interpreted that way, in front of double taxation, but the time of validity of the license is less, and this responds to the issue of validating that the person who is granted the permit has the cognitive and health skills to travel on public roads, “said De la Rosa.

The lawyer said the procedures to reconfigure the regulations are subject to the approval of the Board of Directors that governs Intrant, which has the power to verify resolutions such as the one being edited. “As soon as the declarations of our president and executive director, Milton Morrison, were offered, the corresponding steps were initiated,” he affirmed.

“Intrant is subject to the approval of this type of resolution, especially those that have to do with economic issues, to the approval of the Board of Directors. Already from Intrant, together with Public Works, all the steps were taken, and, in effect, what was already dictated by the President was validated in papers. So we are closing this phase of signatures so that these dispositions enter into force in the shortest time possible. Still, we have to exhaust this legal part before we proceed with the application of the norms,” he pointed out in his statement.

Variation of the renewal rates

On his side, Chevalier emphasized the call made to the council meeting in search of varying the rates in the renewal of licenses for those over 65 years of age, recognition that the ministries that compose the body, together with the Dominican Municipal League, are aware of, even though there are still procedures to be exhausted for the signing and approval of a resolution.

“Subsequent to the celebration of the council’s signatures, two administrative and legal procedures must be fulfilled. Obviously, the taking of minutes, and those minutes must be signed by the councils, which takes time. From the executive management, we have proceeded to inform the various financial intermediation entities, such as the Banco de Reservas, BDI, the RD Payments platform, and others to which Intrant has access. And we are in the process of them exhausting the testing stage so that the citizen can pay under the new resolution that has been determined by the council by the disposition of the President,” said the official.

So, in addition to the directive members’ signatures, the project must be sent to the financial entities, who must modify the value to be paid for the care.

The institution foresees that the rates to be paid in the renewal will be ready before mid-November, but the two-year validity for those over 65 will remain, as established in Decree 6-19, which seeks to edit the economic part and continue examining the health aspects.

“That renewal entails the medical evaluations that are needed. We already know that this rate is going to be reduced, but without failing to mention that we are facing two things: the control includes from that moment in which I decide to grant that you are going to make a validation, as well as at the time of driving, which is another issue in which Digesett enters and so on. We do a previous control,” said Raquel de la Rosa.

Meanwhile, Jhonattan Chevalier understands that the periodicity established for senior citizens is the “mechanism of psychological, mental and health control so that they can drive,” without failing to mention that “it is not something that generates a violation, on the contrary, we are guaranteeing that citizens can transit in the best way with levels of supervision.”

De la Rosa shared that the council resolved the issue positively, so the rest is a legal and administrative issue that we are trying to articulate in the shortest time possible.