In the Dominican Republic, penalties for environmental violations are established in terms of minimum monthly salaries, inter alia. The minimum monthly salary is set by the Ministry of Labor, and in January 2006 the minimum monthly salary was 3,900 Dominican Pesos, or approximately US$111. The advantage of using penalties based on units of the minimum monthly salary is that the penalties can be easily and readily adjusted to account for economic country inflation. In this way, the penalties assure their ongoing validity over the time, with respect to both their deterrence and punishment values.
Article 167 of the Dominican Republic’s Environmental Law (64-00) authorises the Ministry of Environment to issue administrative penalties for violations of the Law. These administrative measures include: penalties ranging from one-half (1/2) of the minimum monthly salary up to 3,000 minimum salaries. The minimum salary corresponds to the particular date of infraction. The precise penalty – where in the range of 0.5 to 3,000 minimum salaries – depends on (1) the specific economic status of the physical or juridical person that caused the damage, and on (2) the magnitude of the environmental harm.
Article 176 of the Law establishes penalties for violations by legal persons (i.e., businesses and other entities). These penalties range from 5,000 minimum monthly salaries up to 20,000 minimum monthly salaries.
Article 183 of the Law authorises the court of law to impose penalties against natural and legal/juridical persons for violations of the Law. These penalties range from one-fourth (1/4) of the minimum monthly salary up to 10,000 minimum salaries. For these purposes, the minimum monthly salary that is in force at the time of the judgment is used.
For more information, see http://www.medioambiente.gov.do/ or contact sga@medioambiente.gov.do