Santo Domingo.- Customs director Rafael Camilo and business leaders from Santiago and the Industries Association will sign an agreement to "voluntarily" pay, together with 20 other companies operating within Proindustria Law 392-07, the ITBIS tax on the raw materials via Customs, and not Internal Taxes, as the law stipulates.

The signature of the new pact, scheduled during a press conference at 10:30 a.m. today, stems from the need for 35 companies, which represent 85% of the ITBIS received by Customs, had previously agreed to pay from RD$1.8 billion to RD$2.0 billion for the rest of the year, to cover the deficit that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demands solving.

However many of those companies which don’t pay ITBIS weren’t taken into account in the first pact because they produce staple foods, which motivated their removal and others were sought to replace them, because the ITBIS collection would fall from 85% to 70%.

The decision came after a meeting with Camilo on Friday, and the 20 other Proindustria companies will today pledge to pay the ITBIS in Customs, to not violate the Proindustria Law because it will be an agreement between the parts until December 2011, when the agreement with the IMF concludes, for which in January 2012 the ITBIS would then be paid via Internal Taxes.

The industrialists have called the pact positive and doesn’t break the law, because of the need to maintain the stability of the economy.

They had previously stated that if the ITBIS was to be charged by Customs most of the Proindustria companies would go bankrupt.