Businessman and former Secretary of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce (DDEC) Manuel Cidre said rising energy, water and other operating costs are hurting Puerto Rico’s small merchants, citing the latest study by the Puerto Rico Restaurant Association (ASORE), and urged an accelerated, deep tax reform. Speaking on Normando en la Mañana, he praised the restaurant industry’s resilience through the 1980s oil rise, storms, earthquakes, the pandemic and the current energy crisis, but said businesses cannot remain in lament and must be more creative.
On the proposal to exempt prepared foods from the IVU sales tax, Cidre said the exemption alone is not enough, because consumers lack money in their pockets as payments that were traditionally lower are now much higher. He called for a broad tax reform with shared responsibility between the government and the Oversight Board, noting less consumption means less revenue.
Cidre also urged shrinking the government, saying Puerto Rico cannot sustain more than one hundred public agencies and that, despite collecting $13 billion in revenue, the island cannot even cover an emergency. He distinguished costs Puerto Rico controls, saying people cannot blame the local government for tariffs, without specifying whom he meant. He advised merchants to be aggressive, maximize social media, prioritize volume to dilute costs, and stay afloat, calling current costs unacceptable for an island 100 by 35 miles with 3.2 million inhabitants.