SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Nov. 16 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Vice President of the Government of the Canary Islands and Minister of Finance, Budgets and European Affairs, Román Rodríguez, stated today in a parliamentary committee that the draft Law on General State Budgets that is being processed in the Cortes “is as good for the Canary Islands now as last week”, a circumstance that he welcomed.
In response to a question from the United We Can group, the vice president explained that the state accounts for next year are very similar to the previous ones, with a highly marked anti-cyclical policy and spending oriented towards social protection, of which “logically Canarian citizens will also benefit,” he added.
Román Rodríguez pointed out that the bill respects the economic and fiscal rights of the Canary Islands, although he pointed out that in the period of amendments certain specific items can be improved, such as aid to the banana sector or attention to immigrant minors.
In another moment of the commission, the vice-president recalled the initiatives that the Government of the Canary Islands has launched to review the price of large works or the exemption from the collection of fees for construction management and inspection, so that companies do not are penalized by high inflation.
In any case, Rodríguez wanted to remember that the regulations on contracting are the responsibility of the State and urged the parliamentary groups of Congress and the Senate to present legislative initiatives to modify the current Law.
The vice president also referred to the work carried out by the Tax Agency to combat tax fraud through different means and tools, with the understanding that the best way to fight this phenomenon is to broaden the taxpayer base.
Rodríguez also participated today in the European Affairs and Foreign Action commission, in which he answered two questions regarding Western Sahara and reiterated the unanimous position of the Canarian institutions and society to respect international legality and hold the referendum on self determination.
In this regard, he discredited the supposed conference held last month in the Islands on the future of Western Sahara “because it was a farce orchestrated by the Moroccan Government itself to defend its position” and stressed that “neither the Government of the Canary Islands nor the Government of Spain participated in it”.
