SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 9 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The candidate of the Canarian Coalition to the Congress of Deputies for the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Cristina Valido, has demanded that the next Government of Spain articulate the necessary aid so that Canarian artists and cultural managers can develop their activity on equal terms when they move to the Peninsula and outside the national territory due to the extra costs of transportation and fiscal extra costs, in addition to bureaucratic obstacles, breaching in certain cases with the Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF).
This was stated by the nationalist candidate after recently holding a meeting with artists and cultural managers from the islands to seek solutions in Congress to the difficulties that persist “so that Canarian creators can show their talent outside the Archipelago, due to the economic and the bureaucratic overload in customs, as well as those of transport -round trip- to the Peninsula and abroad”.
During the meeting, in which the Senate candidates Jonathan Domínguez and Gladis de León were also present, Valido made a commitment to the sector that Canarian culture be present on the agenda of the nationalists in Congress, as well as to ensure compliance of REF.
“It is not possible that the paintings of our painters, in practice, are cultural assets but they continue to be treated as mere commercial assets, with the obligation of economic deposits prior to their shipment to exhibitions in the Peninsula, to which is added the cost of insurance and transport, always complicated for this type of works”, lamented Valido.
According to the testimonies collected during the meeting, “the Law of the Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF) of the Canary Islands, whose article 25 bis, since 2018 establishes that the transfer of artistic assets from the Canary Islands to the Peninsula, the Balearic Islands and the rest of the the European Union, and its return, will be exempt from tax and customs charges to equate it to displacements within the peninsular and community territory”.
Cost overruns are another of the big problems, as with Canarian athletes. “A Spanish guitar musician who gives concerts and performs in competitions outside the Canary Islands sees how the airlines must pay a normal non-resident ticket for his instrument, with the consequent extra cost of 75% of the price of the trip, and given the impossibility that it can be checked in as hold baggage due to its fragility”, denounced the candidate.
