P.R. Laws tit. 13, § 32126

2019-02-20 00:00:00+00
§ 32126. Special disposition of funds

(a) The taxes on admission fees imposed under this part, collected at the municipal stadium of the Capital City, shall be deposited into a special account and transferred to the municipality of San Juan by the Secretary in the manner and at the time the latter may determine and for the time the Secretary may deem necessary, considering the revenues and expenditures that result from the operation and construction of the stadium and its facilities.

(b) The taxes on admission fees collected at the stadiums of other municipalities shall be deposited into a special account and be transferred to the corresponding municipality until the total of any debt or obligation said municipality may incur for the purpose of defraying the cost of improvements or expansions to said stadiums is paid in full. This provision shall take effect as of the date the improvement or expansion works in said stadiums are initiated. The Sports and Recreation Secretary shall supervise and approve the works and notify the date of their initiation to the Secretary. For purposes of this subsection, the works for the improvement and expansion of the stadiums shall be deemed to have begun once the Municipal Legislature of the municipality in question authorizes a loan for financing said works. Said funds shall revert to the General Fund of the Government of Puerto Rico when the improvements and expansions are not physically initiated within a period of two (2) years as of the date of the authorization for the municipal loan.

(c) Ten percent (10%) of the proceeds of the tax collected on admission fees, except for those taxes on admission fees referred to in subsections (a) and (b) of this section and those corresponding to admission fees for events held at the Pachín Vicnés Coliseum in Ponce and at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, shall be deposited in a special fund for the operating expenditures of the Festival Casals, Inc., the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra Corporation, the Strings Program for Children, and the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music Corporation.

Every three (3) months, the Secretary of the Treasury shall transfer sixty-six percent (66%) of the amounts deposited in said fund to the Musical Arts Corporation, created by §§ 1165 et seq. of Title 18, so that according to the applicable laws they may be made available to the Festival Casals, Inc., and the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra in equal parts. The remaining thirty-four percent (34%) of the amounts deposited in said fund shall be transferred by the Secretary of the Treasury every three (3) months to the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music Corporation so that they may be used for its operation and the operation of the String Program for Children in equal parts.

(d) The Secretary shall make a monthly appropriation in the amount of two hundred seventy thousand dollars ($270,000) from the proceeds of the collection of the sales and use tax, which shall be deposited in an account denominated the “Puerto Rico Motion Picture Arts, Sciences, and Industry Development Fund”, in the books of the Department of the Treasury, without a specific fiscal year, and they shall be entered separately from any other funds under the custody of the Secretary. The income of said fund shall not be considered in determining the total annual income of the General Fund. The Secretary shall make a quarterly transfer of the amounts entered into said fund to the Puerto Rico Motion Picture Arts, Sciences and Industry Development Corporation so that, according to the applicable laws, he/she may make them available to said entity for purposes of the latter and in the manner and time the Secretary may determine.

(e) The proceeds from the zero point five percent (0.5%) portion of the municipal sales and use tax authorized by §§ 32030 and 33001 et seq. of this title shall be collected by the Secretary, in accordance with §§ 33001 et seq. of this title, to be deposited in special accounts or funds in the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico (hereinafter, the “Bank”), which shall be used exclusively for purposes indicated hereinafter. Said amounts may not be deposited, transferred, or loaned at any time in the General Fund of the Government of Puerto Rico, with no exception whatsoever. In this same context, the Commonwealth may not deduct any amount whatsoever for debts the municipalities may have with any department, agency, instrumentality, or public corporation of any nature, with the exception of the amount established in § 32126(h) of this title. The revenues generated from the sales and use tax shall be specifically distributed for the following purposes:

(1) Zero point two percent (0.2%) of the zero point five percent (0.5%) sales and use tax to be collected by the Secretary shall be deposited in a special account or fund in the Bank denominated “Municipal Development Fund”, created pursuant to § 32127 of this title.

(2) Zero point two percent (0.2%) of the zero point five percent (0.5%) sales and use tax to be collected by the Secretary shall be deposited in a special fund in the Bank to grant loans to the municipalities of Puerto Rico denominated “Municipal Redemption Fund”, created pursuant to § 32128 of this title.

(3) Zero point one percent (0.1%) of the zero point five percent (0.5%) sales and use tax to be collected by the Secretary shall be deposited in a special account or fund in the Bank denominated “Municipal Improvement Fund”, created pursuant to § 32129 of this title.

(f) For purposes of implementing subsection (e) of this section, the obligation of the Secretary, the Bank, and all the municipalities of Puerto Rico to expedite and furnish among themselves, to one another, all information pertaining to the revenues of the sales and use tax authorized by §§ 32021, 32022 and 32030 of this title, is hereby established, regardless of the mechanisms used for the collection thereof or the entity, agency, or company contracted or authorized by law to carry out the collections, as well as the transfer thereof to the different special funds administered by the Bank mentioned in subsection (e) of this section. The Secretary and the Bank shall furnish the municipalities on a quarterly basis, and at the request of the latter, any information regarding the collection, imposition, and administration of the municipal sales and use tax, including, but not limited to that which pertains to the filing of returns, Registry for Merchants, and the amount remitted, from the moneys collected and deposited, to each of the special funds established in §§ 32127, 32128 and 32129 of this title.

(g) The remittance or deposit of the moneys corresponding to each one of the special funds established in §§ 32127, 32128 and 32129 of this title, shall be immediately transferred to the Bank as soon as they are collected by the Secretary, but never later than ten (10) days after the collection thereof, being it established that these moneys shall not be used by the Secretary for any other purpose. To such effect, it is established that the delay in the remittance of said funds for a period of ten (10) days after their collection shall entail the payment of interest on the amount not remitted on time, to be computed at a rate of ten percent (10%) annually on the amount not remitted on time.

(h) The cost of programming the collection system to be implemented by the Department of the Treasury for the collection by the Secretary of the zero point five percent (0.5%) sales and use tax for the benefit of the municipalities pursuant to §§ 33001 et seq. of this title, shall be defrayed through a one-million-dollar ($1,000,000) contribution to be allocated equally among the seventy eight (78) municipalities from the revenues of the Municipal Development Fund established in § 32127 of this title prior to the distribution to the municipalities of the moneys deposited in said fund. Any amount additional to the one million dollars ($1,000,000) contributed by the municipalities that is needed to implement the collection of the zero point five percent (0.5%) shall be defrayed by the Secretary of the Treasury. To such effect, the President of the Bank is hereby empowered to establish a line of credit so that the Secretary may defray the cost related to the programming and implementation of the collection system.

Notice This section has more than one version with varying effective dates. Second of three versions of this section.

History —Jan. 31, 2011, No. 1, § 4050.06, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2011; Dec. 10, 2011, No. 232, § 144; June 30, 2013, No. 40, § 46.