Thirty- nine minutes of wedding. Yesterday I was by the new hotel that
they' re doing Ling. I have to be world class, an impressive
thing. Okay. Yesterday I was invited to an activity of the Dominican Association
of Rum Producers to meet going to series of interesting information. You know that
we are engaged in the words reformation You are going to hear a lot and
you will see many weddings and many messes with the seals and all this to
distract our minds in what happens the Attribute Reform, without you reforming it,
not raising taxes. I see a lot of people making a proposal that won
' t listen to anyone. I' ve got friends on that farting the
moon. But what is true is that the Dominican Republic. I was surprised
that in such a short time so many tax increases have been made constantly.
I thought that in the last thirty- fifty years nothing more or if two
as three or four foll more than seven there are neither taxed moments. And
what I didn' t know was that every time the state wants to go
for money, it goes to the safe, it goes not to the romo,
to the romo. I think we talked about it once, but I
didn' t know that rum had such a high tax burden after gasoline.
For what you have imposed on me pay on this pallet for a blunt pot
when you buy a brand of any rum, but that of the cheap rum
from which you the band we don' t drink anyone. Sixty percent of
the amount you pay for the bottle is taxed sixty sixty percent. Erron is
more expensive, it' s a fifty percent tax and we' re the
country that collects the most taxes in the region by rum taxes So, for
the last twenty years, every time you' re going to get your hands
on the tax issue, we' re going to break and beer and there
' s a series of taxes that have to see, for example, the
amount of alcohol that the drink has. That' s why there were companies
that made a reengineering in terms of products that could charge less tax on the
drinks they produce. In the particular case of beer, why light beer appeared
and why it was given so much primacy. This is obviously a tax issue.
It had nothing to do with how consumer habits are changing. I followed
that process a lot because it seemed to me that there was something in the
two thousand three that I didn' t understand. But already after explaining all
this, I understood it quite well. Now, back to Ron, what
the Dominican Association of Ron Producers explained yesterday. Well, they, as a
sector, have been able to identify a number of issues that have had a
negative impact on industry. Although it is true that the Dominican rum industry has
grown significantly in exports and exports rum to seventy countries of all the rum they
produce, they have to pay a significant amount of taxes to the state.
The state collects from all the money it collects. I think the fifth economic
activity that more money pays the fifth. The fourth is the sector, the
alcoholic beverage sector. Five percent of those collected represent alcoholic beverages and the Dominican
Republic and have a number of sheaths that impact. In other words, it
is not pure and simply that rum is produced with molasses, water and cane
and cane and sheath, that is, it has a horizontal impact on the
significant and very important economy. Then, in the two thousand and twelve there
was a staggered increase in the tax that paid the rum of fifty- five
percent and still in all in four years. In the two thousand and twenty
- one, the reform proposal that this government had very much, but they
did so in a phased manner every year. In two thousand twenty- one
the proposal had to increase by fifty percent, but suddenly it was paying,
if it was paying. If he was being shot with a hundred pesos at
a stroke, he was going to take a hundred and fifty pesos so that
people, more or less, have an idea and say the industry is good.
The impact of the reform of two thousand twelve historically already leaves us with
evidence. It leaves us with an idea of how not to do, because
the effect is quite contrary to what is sought. Many will say well,
because that' s blunt and blunt then and damages and so on. It
' s nice to put a lot of tax on it so people consume less
rum and it sounds great. Maybe for those who don' t drink.
The problem is that the one I drink is going to keep drinking. And
there you open two windows. First, the window of circumvention opens and the
window of smuggling and elevation opens and what has happened in the last twelve years
with the RON sector? Well, Ron' s production companies have seen a
significant decrease in the amount of rock in the cheapest segment they sell that is
placed on the market, because that demand has been supplied by counterfeit products,
by contraband products that do not guarantee any quality and that smuggled product does not
generate revenue to the state. Because what has happened in the last twelve years
that, instead of increasing state revenue, what has happened is quite the opposite.
The state collects less. They make some layers of the categories that RON
producers have less competitive and we already know that there are liquor houses in the
country that have discontinued the they manufacture certain products because they are not really competitive
when you go to the market and you crazy a tax plane exactly and the
other worse part that we saw it. And we saw it in the two
thousand twenty, eight years after the reform that it recorded with fifty- five
percent more tax on rum and we saw the counterfeiting and the number of deaths
between twenty and twenty- one bo four hundred dead Dominican Republic product and not
only that the number of people who were victimized and survived, but with terrible
sequelae of consuming or delivering it for serving it adulterated or counterfeit drinks. So
what does the industry want? Well, the state that is in the process
of reviewing, of one of a package of reforms or of or tax increases
that take into account the history of past decisions and the effect that it has
had, that more than positive for the state and for the industry, has
been completely harmful, because it has generated two things. First, little competitiveness
and, secondly, a lot of smuggling and many people clandestinely producing rum to
supply a demand that has not been reduced but has been diverted to the informal
sector. Or not that same one that you buy from that you see when
you the best business. Right now produced a fake God, because if sixty
percent of what they charge you for a bottle of Ron, of course they
' re taxed and I' m going to sell you a bottle of rock
and I' m not going to tax it to the state that sixty percent
because I' m earning every quarter of the world. And it is important
that we take into account that, first, the rum industry is representative for
the very linked history and economic culture, culture and economy and the development of
the Dominican economy of the last almost two hundred years. And, on the
other hand, that, certainly, a market that is provided with products that
you are sure that it was not made on a second floor of a house
in Villa Juana, as you know very much, that there is a lot
of one, that there are many laboratories that use products that are not for
human consumption and carry them and make them into drink, because it is important
that the state that is in process, I repeat the government is in the
process of presenting to us a package of increase, of tax, because it
takes into account the negative effect that have had decisions of the past, because
each time I repeat that there is a need to increase tax. Look for
two hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred and fifty billion to see if this
is tied. You know how they' re gonna do it. I don
' t know I' m not an economist. It' s the subject
of macro- economist, of people studying in those pods who understand that they
can make suggestions. But what is true is that we, like other industries,
such as telecommunications, in the Dominican Republic, are experiencing a phenomenon that
is not happening in other countries. In the Dominican Republic it has emerged an
industry parallel to the formal telephony, to the companies of formal telecommunications, that
are the wifiteros in the neighborhoods, the wifiteros and the tigers that sell Internet
by fiber optics and you go to any neighborhood. You' re gonna find
a lot of companies that are set up in these neighborhoods. These people who
see the Internet service but are not legally formalized, do not pay tax,
but why, because they sell a cheap service compared to formal companies that have
to charge the customer with eighteen of TEBI, ten percent of another tax and
two percent that put you in the development of telecommunications. Thirty percent of your
bill is taxed and that makes these pods appear. Or the great idea that
is now appearing in the Dominican Republic. We' re gonna discourage the consumption
of sugary drinks, because that' s making people sick and sounds great.
But the experience of other countries that have done the same thing is that it
is not even discouraging, and that' s all it generates is that an
informal or contraband market appears that costs the market a cheaper price than they have
to pay a lot of taxes for it. Then, hopefully and in the
midst of all this, you can understand the impact that the tax reform of
two thousand twelve has had on past experiences, the drop in revenue that Dominican
Republic is the country that collects the most by tax on alcoholic beverages, is
the country where the most tax is paid for a bottle of rum or any
alcoholic life. Never mind the one of your choice and good thing you don
' t always go the same way. Going to the same place, Pulling
out of your pocket necessarily means that you will have more bowls more money in
your pocket to spend. Because all of this is also up to us to
ask politicians why. You always ask us to give you more and you don
' t tell us what you' re going to do to need less.
I had already commented on it last week. So, thanks to the Dominican
Association of Producers of Ron for the opportunity to know all this information and hopefully
people are encouraged to know a little more about the data are there so much
about how much it contributes to the economy, the industry, in terms of
what it also contributes to the amount of jobs it generates from the economic impact
of rum and other alcoholic beverages activity in the country and the need that exists
for us to know that we have a border there open and that, as
you tighten the nut the more, the more the border is loosened to bring
box of babang hoo. Oh. Yeah, yeah, full bono boban hoo.
Yes, but let them, that is to say, you see some
star deos you start riding once we take care of our industries, as well
as that of rum, that generate employment and wealth for the Dominican Republic and
so many others that should also sit down and explain to Dominican public opinion the
impact they have on the economy. And, second of all, that you
don' t always go to the same thing for the same pod. Everyone
goes to the same places. Every Hipolito government the same thing, Go well,
the lioness thing the Danilo Lopez government, and now we' re going
back to the same thing. Not by God. It' s eight or
fifty- two minutes that morning rhythm. Yeah, yeah, I know or
Max Hi, I don' t know if I remember you.