The Minister of Finance and Economy (MHE), Magin Diazwill present this Thursday the new plan that the Government has to ensure the “economic growth” and mitigate the impact of the international crisis registered in the country.
This is stated by the MHE in a call, informing that the meeting will be at 11:00 in the morning on Thursday at the headquarters of the government institution.
Although the invitation does not detail what the Executive Branch’s strategy consists of, some representatives of the National Congress have told reporters from the Daily Listunofficially, that they have been in a state of expectation for days, after receiving rumors from the palace about the possible arrival of a new tax reform proposal.
However, the Vice President of the Republic, Raquel Peña, assured this Wednesday that the Dominican ruler is not seeking to implement a modification to the Tax Code.
“The president (Abinader) said it: he does not reform. What we do have to know is that we are in the middle of a war that the world is experiencing and it directly impacts other countries…” she said when interviewed by reporters while she was at the First International Congress on digital transformation.
Precisely, the actions of the Executive Branch occur months after The country ended last year with an economic growth of 2.1%, lower to the estimates which was presented in July 2024 by the then Minister of the Presidency, Joel Santos, when The Government of President Luis Abinader predicted that development would reach 5%.
A failed reform
On October 8, 2024, President Luis Abinader instructed the then Ministry of Finance to submit a legislative proposal aimed at increasing the amount of taxes received each year by the State.
However, the piece remained for only 12 days in the legislative secretariat of the Chamber of Deputies, since the president decided to withdraw his bill in response to the general rejection expressed by various sectors of society, recognizing that “it did not have the necessary consensus” to be approved.
Taxes on digital platforms
Since then, the Government has tried on several occasions to place a series of taxes on digital platforms from abroad that are used in the country, as They are Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, among others..
On May 20, the General Directorate of Internal Taxes (DGII) revealed that it is preparing a proposal to implement the collection of 18% of the Tax on the Transfer of Industrialized Goods and Services (ITBIS).
According to the data shared by the director of the DGII, Pedro Urrutia, the document that would aggravate technological applications could be presented within a period of 60 days.
This would be the fourth time that President Abinader’s administrationstarted in 2020, attempts to impose a tax burden on that sector.
Increase in inflation
The Dominican Republic could not establish from May 2025 until that same month of this year the year-on-year inflation rate in the target rangewhich must be located between 4.0% ± 1.0%.
In this way, the Central Bank (BC) specified it in its report on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), indicating that in the aforementioned period it was located at 5.35%, above the limit due to the increases registered in fuel, which generate increases in air ticket rates, union intercity bus tickets, as well as in motorcycle and public car transportation services.
While core inflation, an indicator that exposes signals for the conduct of the country’s monetary policy, although within the target range, is close to the limit, standing at 4.86% in May 2026.
However, the BC identified that the country has achieved an average accumulated growth of 4.0% during the first four months of this year, according to the preliminary figures revealed by the study of the Monthly Indicator of Economic Activity (IMAE).
