DR: Playing politics with tax reform didn't help Mejia win

President Hipolito Mejia again eschewed his commitments regarding the fiscal reform, which was meant to have been presented as a first draft in March 2004 and a final version scheduled to be submitted to Congress. The Mejia administration had made these commitments as part of the IMF Standby Agreement. As reported in Hoy newspaper today, President Mejia said the fiscal reform needs to be an initiative undertaken by the new authorities who come into power on 16 August and said he would support the reform when it is presented to Congress. Mejia disputed the fact that the IMF agreement obliges his government to present the reforms. “That is false,” he said. He likened the government’s commitment to one at the congressional level. Because of the PRD majority in Congress, he explained that the bill would be studied by “our Congress.”

“Either way we have to assume the responsibility,” he said, as reported in Diario Libre.

The fiscal reform package is a hot potato that the Mejia administration had successfully postponed for after the election, so the expected reductions in buying power the reform would initially bring would not have an adverse effect on the reelection aspiration of President Mejia.