SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 17. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Deputy Minister of the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands, Antonio Olivera, said this Thursday that the Executive maintains its position of avoiding a “generalized reduction” in taxes to deal with the rise in prices and is committed to “surgical” aid for the sectors most affected.
“It is absolutely ruled out”, he commented at a press conference to account for the agreements of the Governing Council in which he insisted that there is a “supply shock” in the market that must be resolved with economic resources and for this the tax collection capacity of the autonomous community must be maintained.
Olivera has pointed out that work is being done to identify the sectors most affected by the rise in energy and raw material prices, in the case of transporters, ranchers or the industry linked to flour, given that “they can benefit” from a tax cut sectors that do not need it.
He pointed out that the Canary Islands is a region with “very low” taxation and in the case of fuels and electricity the margin of reduction “is very scarce” apart from the fact that the principle of fiscal differential with the REF Peninsula must be respected.
Likewise, he has said that “we must flee from advantageous and convenience approaches” such as those of the opposition, which tries to “do demagoguery” in the face of a “complex economic” situation, for which the Canarian Executive will continue to operate “with sanity and calm ” as it has done in the face of previous crises that have occurred in this Legislature.
At the same time, he has said that there will be no tax increase, recalling how the Government of Paulino Rivero –with the PSOE as a partner– raised the IGIC and the tax on fuels to deal with the financial crisis, just like the PP, which increased taxes at the state level.
However, he has guaranteed that the Government is going to take specific measures for the Canary Islands and for this, all the departments are working on proposals that the president, Ángel Víctor Torres, is going to present this Monday to the ministers of Economy, Finance and Ecological Transition.
Olivera understands that in the face of a “global crisis” the solutions must be “global”, starting from the EU and the member states, which must take measures that must later be aligned with those of the autonomous communities.
“The Canary Islands alone cannot, as happened during the Covid crisis, and the situation is similar, it exceeds the powers of the autonomous community and we must all be together and united,” he added.
FORESEEABLE THAT PRICES WILL CONTINUE RISING
The deputy minister has stressed that the direct effects of the war in Ukraine “are reduced” for the Canary Islands because the economic ties with both countries “are weak” but there are “indirect effects” such as the countries that send tourists to the islands and the rise of prices, “which already came previously and it is foreseeable that there will be tensions” in the coming weeks because Ukraine stops producing raw materials and Russia has economic sanctions.
He has also indicated that in the face of a “supply shortage problem” it is necessary to look for other countries that supply the raw materials and “implement measures” to make the economy less dependent, something “fundamental” in the case of energy, where it is important that the calculation of gas prices is unlinked.
Likewise, he has supported the ‘income pact’ proposed by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, to “share” the rise in prices “in a balanced way” between companies and consumers, as was done in the oil crisis of the years 70.
For this reason, Olivera sees the European summit on the 24th and 25th and the Council of Ministers on the 29th as key.
