Barrick $$$ Hope it's good for GQC GLTA!According to the Dominican Republics chief taxman, Luis Valdez Veras, the Barrick Gold mining company has advanced some US$45 million to the Tax Agency (DGII). This is about RD$2 billion. The official said that the payment is an advance payment on taxes that come due in 2021. President Luis Abinader had announced the advance payment would be used to fill the void for funds that would have come from creating new taxes. In his Thursday, 7 October 2020 address, Abinader said an amendment would be sent to Congress to revoke the 2021 National Budget Bills new proposed taxes after a generalized protest over the new taxes. Valdez said that the government is looking into an expansion of the ITBIS tax base in 2021. In the Thursday speech, President Abinader had announced that he is convening the Social and Economic Council (CES) to meet to draft the Fiscal Pact as mandated by the National Development Strategy Law 1-12.