Currently, traveling to the Dominican Republic from any part of the world is very expensive for the average Dominican, due to the high tax burden set by Congress on airline tickets under the various governments that have succeeded each other in the last 30 years. This harsh reality has become one of the most frequent complaints among Dominican emigrants.
For example, to travel from New York to Santo Domingo the final price of the ticket is more expensive than traveling from New York to Madrid Spain, how traveling from Miami to the Dominican capital is more expensive than traveling from that city to the Federal District of Mexico.
This not only affects Dominicans, but also the tourism industry, which in the end has a negative impact on the country’s economy. This is due to the fact that the Dominican Republic is among the countries with the highest tax burdens, which cause an increase in the cost of tickets of around 40%.
When the user buys a ticket, he/she pays the following tax charges:
1- Selective consumption tax.
2- The aeronautical tax for the Ministry of Tourism.
3- A tax for the Dominican Aviation Institute.
4- Another tax for the specialized port security corps.
5- Another charge for the air force Dom.
6- One more for the department of airports.
7- One more for the private company that operates the airport (AERODOM).
To these charges, in addition to the price of the ticket, a 16% ITBIS and another tax charge for the issuance of the ticket, which leads to the perception of the unbelievable.
In other countries, for example, they are legislating to try to reach agreements to lower the taxes charged to the tickets of their nationals and tourists, while the Dominican authorities turn a blind eye to this drama that goes far beyond a purely economic issue. It is worth mentioning that this was one of the most powerful reasons why American Airlines (AA) cancelled its operations in Dominican airports, due to the impossibility of using its Boeing aircraft because of the high cost of hangars in the national airports.
This situation affected the transfer of corpses of Dominicans who died abroad, due to the fact that airlines with small planes can only transport two or three corpses per flight, creating a waiting list for funeral homes of up to 30 days, thus increasing the pain, suffering and an additional economic burden for the mourners, in the midst of an event that becomes more traumatic for the debtors of the deceased.
Perhaps in these excessive burdens we would have a job for the few occupations of our “overseas” deputies, legislating to dismantle the tax charges that affect the Dominican Diaspora.
It is time to let these “deputies” know that our community feels mocked by their poor performance and that they are of no use to us. Therefore, for our “representatives” our needs are ignored and show our weariness and tiredness that they continue to use us, especially when they only seek to achieve their political and personal objectives.
It is about time that they learn to value us as a community and from our spaces give a great lesson of nationalism and dominance to those who were elected to be our representatives and defenders, obligations that are conspicuous by their absence in the so-called “Deputies” from overseas.
