Advance from Barrick. Any thoughts?Abinader: No new taxes in 2021 Dolores Vicioso Oct 9, 2020 at 9:38 AM Updated on Oct 9, 2020 at 6:21 AM President Luis Abinader was prompt to react to strong opposition and announced he would submit to Congress an amendment removing the proposed new taxes in the 2021 National Budget. In an address to the nation on the evening of Thursday, 8 October 2020, the President addressed the nations concerns. The taxes would have affected the Christmas wage and Internet purchases, among others. The revenues to be collected were estimated at RD$628 billion. Abinader said he had instead reached an agreement for tax advances with the Barrick Gold mine to compensate for the needed resources. He announced the government is taking loans, contemplates selling assets and is having savings with more efficient government spending. Abinader said the Economic and Social Council (CES) is summoned to move forward with the Fiscal Pact as ordered in the National Development Strategy Law 1-12. The Fiscal Pact will decide on new and old taxes in time for the 2022 National Budget. He said the CES needs to also decide on the Electricity Pact in the next six months. In his 30-minute address to the nation from the Presidential Palace, the President highlighted that more than the health pandemic the difficulties facing the government are the result of the pilferage and misuse of government resources, especially during the past electoral year and during the transition. He called this the corruption pandemic. He criticized the past government emptied the Treasury making payments of RD$40 billion in payments to contractors that had not been budgeted. The payments were made during government transition, leaving the new administration hard-pressed to find resources to make the Covid-19 relief payments. In his address, Abinader said that the past government turned public patrimony into private patrimony. The country cannot forget that for many years the government had been the instrument the political party corporation used to turn public patrimony into private patrimony, he said. He said his administration is acting to dismantle the structure of impunity in government. He said bluntly that the past government was a political regime dedicated to corruption and impunity. He said that as soon as the Controller General Office audits are completed, the prosecutors would act against corruption at their pace. He called the Chamber of Accounts an accomplice of the past government. He said the present Chamber of Accounts had never carried out in-depth audits, as is their role as the government organization in charge of auditing government spending. We have requested that they do so now, but they have not responded. This Chamber of Accounts responds to the interests of the PLD, it is part of the partys armor, the Chamber members by now should have resigned, said Abinader. He announced the new prosecutors are preparing the case on 62 additional Odebrecht-related payments and is acting on evidence of payment of US$39 million in bribes just for the construction of the Punta Catalina power plant. The former Attorney General Office never investigated this evidence. The ongoing US$92 million Odebrecht bribes case handled by former Attorney General Jean Alain Rodrguez has stagnated in the Supreme Court of Justice. Today, Attorney General Miriam Germn Brito had warned early on when she was the Penal Court president in the Supreme Court of Justice that the way the case was being prepared by then Attorney General Rodrguez would lead to its dismissal in the courts. After that statement, she was removed by the National Council of the Magistracy from the Supreme Court of Justice. President Luis Abinader again insisted in his words on Thursday, 8 October that his government would not tolerate corruption. He mentioned the procedure ongoing to cancel all open Odebrecht contracts. He said that the government could not continue to do business with the company that is responsible for the countrys most important case of administrative corruption. The Abinader government is maneuvering with the difficulties of the worst economic crisis due to the total collapse of the nations most important tourism industry, the health crisis and pressure from social sectors, and the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) members for positions in government. The Abinader government started on 16 August 2020. He has said the priority is health, education and social relief. We are aware it is the government that has to tighten its belt, he said and promised quality of spending and transparency in his government. Follow the story in Spanish: