High Impuesto / Commercial truck

A Dominican acquaintance of mine recently imported a 1990 GMC 8 cyl diesel stepvan into the RD, he wants to convert it for use as a mobile restaurant. He paid about US $5000 for it in the states. It being held in RD Customs with a US $6000 (RD $90,000) impuesto assessed. Is this proper? He tells me, it is too much. Any way to get it reduced? Please advise. Regards, PJT

I have had a similar biter experience with the customs in the DR. I contracted a German carrier to ship a rubber boat to Santo Domingo. To ease the clearance process , I had a pro forma invoice issued by the DR consulat in Germany and contracted a Dominican import company. It took the customs a month to calculate the impuestos/import taxes which I paid as requested, As I was already back to Europe , I had somebody to go pick the boat. The taxes had increased by 100 per cent . The reasonning behind was that the air freight cost which I actually paid to the carrier was felt much to low and a theoritical freight charge had been applied instead. My boat is still at the customs and I don't seem to get anywhere at the moment. Wish you better luck.