Santo Domingo.- Santiago Chamber of Commerce and Production executives Fernando Puig Miller and Marco Cabral yesterday said the country has many hurdles to set up a business, difficulties they affirm discourage the establishment of small companies.

They called the red tape bureaucratic obstacles, forcing businesspersons to visit as many as seven agencies.

Interviewed by hoy.com.do, Puig and Cabral said the business sector has proposed a one-window procedure to set up a business, but noted that for certain types of businesses or large projects, interested parties can go directly to the government for the paperwork.

"The fact that you as a businessperson to launch your project in the Dominican Republic, aside from that getting financing is extremely difficult, makes it almost impossible, because the bank business’ structure isn’t designed to support that," Puig said, noting that the law’s bureaucracy which must be tackled to start a formal company is, in his view, extreme.

He said the situation leads many entrepreneurs with complete projects to remain in the informal sector, for which workers don’t pay into Social Security.

Cabral said the tax exemption for new companies is less than one year, for which in the first year they would be already being taxed.

He added that there is scope for the company to develop and have a break in terms of capital flows and therefore, the ITBI tax must be paid before it’s obtained. "There’re a number of structures which perhaps are designed for large enterprises, to ensure the collection of taxes from big business."