Spanish
Santo Domingo. - The Association of Industries of the Dominican Republic (AIRD) expressed its concern about the tariff adjustment implemented by the Board of Directors of the Santo Domingo Aqueduct and Sewerage Corporation (CAASD), which contemplates disproportionate and unjustified increases of up to 400% for the industrial sector, for which it requested its immediate suspension.
The organization called for a review of this process within the framework of legality, transparency, and public consultation with the productive actors impacted by the measure. Mario Pujols, executive vice president of AIRD, emphasized the guild's willingness to contribute to the search for balanced solutions: "The country needs sustainable public services, as well as the productive sector needs predictability in the processes of structuring public policies. Any tariff adjustment must be built on legal, participatory, and technically supported bases. Surprising decisions, like this one, impact the principles of legal security to which the industrial sector is accustomed," he stated.
The AIRD highlighted that, while it recognizes the need to update the tariff schemes based on the operational sustainability of the services, it is concerned that in this case the required public consultation or the publication of the technical studies supporting the increase has not been carried out. "With this decision, CAASD ignores the mandate of various legal provisions that guarantee due process and regulatory predictability in our country. The measure does not include a gradual approach to the tariff adjustment, abruptly and surprisingly implementing a considerable increase in tariffs when the 2026 budgets had already been approved by the affected companies," Pujols specified.
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Likewise, Pujols highlighted the introduction of significant tariff differences between national industries and free zones, an aspect that was not included in the previous scheme, which reduces competitiveness in the industrial sector and generates evident discrimination between productive sectors in the country. The industrial guild reiterated its commitment to strengthening essential services and, at the same time, called on CAASD to suspend the implementation of the decision, open spaces for technical dialogue to analyze the issue and learn about institutional initiatives focused on combating non-payment by informal actors in the business sector. "In this process, we have identified that the water and sewage corporations in the country do not observe homogeneous criteria for adjusting tariffs and do not share the technical studies that justify their decisions, contrary to what the current laws provide. This situation directly affects the industrial sector, being this a matter of national interest that must be treated with the responsibility and urgency it deserves, considering the impact it has on the prices of essential products in the market," concluded Pujols.
