| The Dominican Sun |
| "Daily Dominican Republic News in English Since 2004" |
| Monday, February 8th, 2010 |
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Demanding higher profit, gas station to halt sales for 6 hours Wednesday
Story Text & Photos © 2010 by Dominican Today Feb 8 2010 11:29AM
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 Dominican Today -
Santo Domingo.- Fuel retailers will halt sales in their stations the country for six hours on Wednesday around the country, to demand that the Government raise their profit margins.
In a statement the National Fuel Retailers Association announced the measure Monday morning, noting that its 456 affiliate stations nationwide won’t pump fuel from 6 a.m. to 12 noon. “To continue operating fuel stations with high fuel costs and the increase in the different economic variables is currently untenable.”
Among those variables retailers cite a pay raise for employees, social security payments, 11 percent accumulated inflation in the last two years, losses from evaporation and temperature and sagging average sales, from 79,000 to 40,000 gallons per station, resulting from consumers changing to propane gas and high taxes on gasoline.
The fuel retailers say what most affects them is the proliferation of smuggled diesel, which pays not tax and is sold through third parties and people not related to the sector.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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DRSol Evening Weather Summary for September 10, 2010
Story Text & Photos © 2010 by The Dominican Sun Sep 10 2010 18:29PM
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 The Dominican Sun - Across the Dominican Republic in the last 24 hours the highest observed temperature by DRSol was 93 at La Romana International Airport. The coolest reading came from Santiago with an overnight low of 72. A few spotty light to moderate rain showers were reported, and rain is being observed right now as well at Las Americas and La Isabella. Skies were generally partly cloudy. Winds are averaging 9 mph from the E, with a peak gust to 17 mph seen at 5PM this afternoon at Samana. By the Numbers DR cities reported rain 10% of the time, and thunderstorms 0%. Average reported rainfall intensity on a scale of 0 to 100 was 42. Cloud cover totaled 39%. Click above to view summaries for the last week or last month. Last updated at 7:28PM. Read original at The Dominican Sun.
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American Airlines marks 35 years with renewed pledge to Dominicans
Story Text & Photos © 2010 by Dominican Today Sep 10 2010 13:00PM
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 Dominican Today -
Santo Domingo- American Airlines today commemorated its 35 years of operations in the Dominican Republic, bolstering its commitment to serve this nation.
During the event held in the Occidental hotel El Embajador the participants were treated to the history of the airline from its beginnings in civil aviation on September 8, 1975, with a flight from New York to Santo Domingo.
“American is proud to have taken roots in the Dominican Republic and to have contributed positively to the country development in these decades,” said Oliver Bojos, American Airlines director for Dominican Republic
“During these 35 years we’ve dedicated to our best effort and determination to construct this solid relation, and for our appreciation for the unconditional support and great preference of this noble Dominican people, we pledge to offer increasingly better service, better destination, more schedules, and increase our services infrastructure for our customers’ greater comfort,” Bojos said in a satement.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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Deep Blue Marine sends second boat to seek treasure in Dominican waters
Story Text & Photos © 2010 by Dominican Today Sep 10 2010 13:00PM
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 Dominican Today -
SALT LAKE CITY (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX)- Deep Blue Marine, Inc. announced today that the company has equipped a second 88 ton vessel, which was purchased earlier this year, for survey and recovery work in the Dominican Republic. The boat, named the “Kerri Lynn,“ is on its way from Florida to the Dominican Republic and is expected to arrive in 7-10 days, weather permitting.
Wilf Blum, President and CEO, had this to say: “With the amount of work that we have ahead of us, the addition of this ship is very exciting. The ship will go to work on our North Shore area as soon as it arrives. It is 100% equipped with dive gear and recovery equipment and is ready to be put to work immediately. “
“As always, investing in this type of venture is very risky and no one should invest if they cannot safely tolerate that risk,“ Blum said.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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Gasoline, diesel prices climb, propane gas unchanged
Story Text & Photos © 2010 by Dominican Today Sep 10 2010 12:02PM
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 Dominican Today -
Santo Domingo- All fuel prices except propane gas will climb for the week from September 11 to 17 and starting Saturday morning, the Industry and Commerce Ministry announced Friday.
Premium gasoline will cost 161. 10 pesos, or 0. 50 more, while regular climbs 0. 90, to 151. 80 pesos per gallon.
Regular diesel will cost 132. 80 and premium diesel climbs to 138. 10 pesos per gallon, or 1. 10 higher for both.
Avtur will cost 106. 57 pesos, or 1. 59 more; kerosene will jump 1. 40 to 123. 50
Propane gas will remain to 78. 39 pesos per gallon.
Read original at Dominican Today.
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Jazz from a Caribbean perspective
Story Text & Photos © 2010 by DR1 Sep 10 2010 12:01PM
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DR1 - Centro Leon has announced the celebration of the 4th Congress on International Music, Identity and Culture in the Caribbean (MIC IV) from 15-17 April 2011 at Centro Leon in Santiago. A series of related activities will precede the congress, beginning next month. This year the congress will be dedicated to Jazz from a Caribbean Perspective. Previous conferences have analyzed merengue, son, salsa and bolero. The event is being sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, the Centro Cultural Eduardo Leon Jimenes and the Institute of Caribbean Studies.
The Centro Leon recently released a new book "Bolero in Caribbean Culture and its Universal Projection 2010". The book compiles conferences, talks, and testimonies from the III Congress on International Music, Identity and Culture in the Caribbean held at Centro Leon in April 2009.
For more on upcoming and ongoing events, see Read original at DR1.
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Samana power increase revoked
Story Text & Photos © 2010 by DR1 Sep 10 2010 12:01PM
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DR1 - Luz y Fuerza, the leading electricity utility in Samana, has announced that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has revoked the tax on fuel levied on the company. The company had reacted to the taxation by passing on a 50% increase in power tariffs to consumers in the province of Samana in August. The agreement with the Ministry also authorizes tax-free natural gas. The company said that once it starts operating using natural gas, consumers could expect a reduction in current rates prior to the August increase.
"We are pleased to inform users of the electricity service in Las Terrenas, Las Galeras and El Limon, Samana province, that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has signed a resolution that will leave without effect the collection of taxes on fuels used to generate power in August, a necessary first step for eliminating the increase in the rates for that month," said the company. Read original at DR1.
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Romanian arrested for credit card fraud
Story Text & Photos © 2010 by DR1 Sep 10 2010 12:01PM
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DR1 - The Police have announced the arrest of a Romanian man for credit card fraud. The police confiscated 41 international credit cards and said that he had cloned and committed fraud worth many thousands of pesos and dollars at local banks. He was identified as Popescu Ionut, as reported in El Dia. Read original at DR1.
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DGII RD$500 million fraud
Story Text & Photos © 2010 by DR1 Sep 10 2010 12:00PM
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DR1 - The Department of Taxes (DGII) has arraigned eight companies accusing them of fraudulently selling bills with forged tax billing numbers (NCF) to evade paying taxes, as reported in El Dia. Acting DGII director Germania Montas estimated the fraud at RD$500 million when making the announcement at a press conference together with National District prosecutor Alejandro Moscoso Segarra. She said the eight companies were accused and also 82 companies that purchased the irregular NCFs.
Montas says the greatest fraud was made by Dragonfly Commercial, S. A. , belonging to Pavel Storkan, a Czech citizen. She said the company issued NCFs worth RD$313 million despite not selling any goods or offering any service to the beneficiary of the NCF. The beneficiaries manufactured clothes, sold seafood, electrical materials and computer equipment, among other goods.
Montas said that, "the companies were factories for producing NCFs with the only purpose that other companies could deduct those expenses and reduce the taxes they would pay. "
The DGII discovered the fraud when Dragonfly Commercial billed the RD$313 million, but did not declare income tax for the value. When DGII inspectors contacted the company they learned that it was not at the address listed with the DGII, and had not purchased the goods or services for which it was billing on the local market, nor did it have a warehouse for the goods.
DGII says that the companies were created in 2008 and requested their NCFs in the usual way and began to bill for diverse products. She said that 25 of the 80 companies had been recommended by two tax advisors. Read original at DR1.
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Disaster mitigation meeting
Story Text & Photos © 2010 by DR1 Sep 10 2010 12:00PM
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DR1 - The 18th Meeting of the Special Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction, organized by the Association of Caribbean States is taking place in Santo Domingo from 9-10 September at the Ministry of Foreign Relations auditorium.
The secretary general of the CRRD, Luis Fernando Andrade highlighted that the tragedy in Haiti demonstrated the need for an evaluation of mitigation risk agendas in the region. Andrade began his work as secretary general just 10 days after the earthquake in Haiti. The committee is discussing strategies for strengthening operations and hydro-weather services in the Caribbean and all the national disaster risk mitigation platforms. Read original at DR1.
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Will new managers fix the problems?
Story Text & Photos © 2010 by DR1 Sep 10 2010 11:59AM
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DR1 - The Fernandez administration has nominated three foreign managers to serve at the helm of the three power distribution companies. The CDEEE explained the changes were part of agreements with the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank that required the three foreign electricity specialists take charge in order to authorize disbursement of US$200 million in funds for the electricity sector. Experts have long explained that the main reason why the DR`s electricity system is so deficient is that political decisions have always prevailed.
A report in Hoy, however, says that changing the managers will not solve the problem. It argues that the problem is in the high prices for which the generators sell power and in the distribution monopoly. Economist Arturo Martinez Moya told Hoy that the switch "is more of the same. " He said the horizontal electrical system model has collapsed and called for a model where "whoever generates collects for the service. " He advocates eliminating the distributors that he says just serve as intermediaries.
Engineer Milton Morrison says that the companies need to be privatized and the government monopoly eliminated when it comes to distribution. He recommended that several companies should be able to distribute power so there is competition in the market.
Architect Leopoldo Espaillat Nanita says that the failure in the system is due to power generation contracts that have "godfathers" in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Yesterday, President Leonel Fernandez announced the appointment of Marcelo Rogelio Silva Iribarne, Eduardo Saavedra Pizarro and Francisco Leiva Landabur to head the three government-owned distributors. Earlier this week, Celso Marranzini, executive vice president of the Public Electricity Corporation, announced that the distributors had performed well below expectations. Read original at DR1.
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