The plenary session of the City Council of La Orotava unanimously approved a series of measures to reduce or freeze taxes and fees, and, at the same time, maintain bonuses that help the economy of the neighbors in a context of significant uncertainty due to the pandemic, the economic situation that has led to this and the armed conflict.
The approved proposals that will materialize in next year’s fiscal ordinances are the result of the negotiation carried out by all the political groups, “which have left their own initiatives to adopt those of others,” said the Councilor for Economy and Finance, Felipe David Benitez.
Among them, the mayor highlighted the drop of 2.2% of the IBI, the reduction of the garbage rate of 15% for small businesses and the 40% bonus of the fee for the use of solar energy.
The spokesman for the PSOE, Víctor Luis, stressed that his group has been proposing the reduction of rates and taxes since 2015 to reduce fiscal pressure and help neighbors and “stop being an expensive municipality to live in or to invest in”, an objective that , in his opinion, “has not been fully achieved”, because in La Orotava they pay an average of 122 euros more per inhabitant than in other municipalities.
The spokeswoman for the Assembly for La Orotava, Aida Salazar, agreed with the socialist mayor and considered that “the drop in IBI in the receipt will not be noticed exponentially” and regretted that the 50% reduction has not been included instead of the 40% for the IBI of electricity use.
Finally, the PP councilor, Patricia Fernández, stressed that the approved ordinances favor the self-employed for whom “the City Council has done more than the central government, which it accused of unemployment, tax increases and inflation, as well as ” a Spain that is at the tail of Europe”.
