The Saipan Chamber of Commerce president, Douglas Brennan, has told Representative Stanley Torres that the Chamber is "vehemently opposed" to the lawmaker's proposal to increase gross revenue taxes, saying it would further decimate an economy already in recession.
Mr Brennan says increases in the cost of doing business in the CNMI would have a net negative effect on business activity, consumer pricing, actual revenue generated by the proposed increases, and jobs in the CNMI.
He says now is not the time to extract, through increased taxation, funding for government expenditures from businesses that are barely surviving.
Mr Torres formally introduced his House Bill on Friday and it is now under committee review.
