The first force of the opposition sees the Government’s tax reform as “shy” and calls for the temporary drop in the IGIC from 7% to 5%
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Nov. 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The spokesman for the Canarian Nationalist Group, José Miguel Barragán, registered this Monday the amendment to the entire General Budget of the Autonomous Community with the aim of “finding a more effective way to face some of the challenges and uncertainties projected for 2023”.
The proposal is based on the document sent to the Presidency of the Government with which there was “little success” and they are “aware” that, “after the foreseeable rejection by the government groups in plenary session on Wednesday, there will not be much capacity left of change in the period of amendments to the articles and economic sections”.
In his opinion, “if we had sat down to discuss that document, today there would be no amendment to the entirety and the Canary Islands would have a bill closer to what it needs to alleviate the weight of the crisis on families, businesses and productive sectors”.
The document proposes, in different blocks, a rigorous alternative “to this insufficient budget, which continues to trust its success to a greater volume of resources but not to their correct distribution, nor to excellence in their management.”
The spokesman maintains in a note that “in these budgets the closeness of the electoral process weighs more than effective planning”, and again affects the “deficit” management capacity of the Government.
Thus, he points out that the situation makes it necessary to mitigate, from public action, the effects of inflation on people, YYMEs and the self-employed and reorient the prioritization of some public management actions.
“Everything is going well that the Government uses, based on the recovery of tourist activity or the projections of the increase in Employment in 2022, cannot cover the economic and social reality that exists in the Canary Islands, which can be aggravated by the fact of the entry into recession in the United Kingdom, the constant rise in the price of money that will make the mortgages of thousands of families more expensive and the still uncertain consequences of a war that does not end”, Barragán details.
The core of the amendment to the entirety is in fiscal policy because “it has been approached in a timid way”, he points out, with 100 million euros, “when they register more collection than ever and not only have a surplus but they announce it for the next year”.
DEBT CAPACITY
To make this policy possible, he maintains that it is necessary to review the income policy, using the indebtedness capacity of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands in an “exceptional and temporary” way in 2023, since it continues to be one of the least indebted in terms of GDP.
“The debt per inhabitant in the Canary Islands stood at 2,971 euros per inhabitant at the beginning of 2022 and the State average reaches 6,600 euros, and if we take into account the extension by the European Commission of the suspension of tax rules for the next year would allow a more ambitious and effective anti-cyclical action on the effects of inflation”, explains José Miguel Barragán.
TAXATION
The Grupo Nacionalista Canario proposes, along these lines, a 1% reduction in the regional section of personal income tax, the deflation of personal income tax rates, as well as the updating of deductions and new deductions from personal income tax aimed at offsetting the extra cost of the outermost and double insularity for those with incomes of less than 42,000 euros, if the declaration is individual, or 57,200 euros if it is made jointly and which include deductions for study expenses, for the birth of children, for children with disabilities , for the support of domestic workers and caregivers, for extra costs in the shopping basket and for mental health expenses, among others.
Regarding the IGIC, of which 74.5 million euros more than in 2021 has been collected this year, with data from September, Barragán announced that, given the “sacrifice” that families and companies are making, the following are included measures: the expansion of the special regime for small and medium-sized entrepreneurs and professionals, the reduction of the general rate from 7% to 5% during 2023 and from 2.75%, the reduced rate; the application of type 0 for the production, transport and distribution of electrical energy, gas, steam and hot water; type 0 for the transport of passengers and public service goods by land; exempt companies in the primary sector, which have a zero rate, from advancing the IGIC to the Government; type 0 to agricultural, forestry and livestock activities; the application of the cash principle, the application of type 0 to the deliveries of electrical energy and modifying the taxation of fuels, especially in El Hierro, La Gomera and La Palma, which was not allowed to modify the legislation “and not even debate” your group’s Bill.
NON-EXECUTION AND EUROPEAN FUNDS
Regarding the level of expenses by sections, the nationalists propose a vision “closer to reality” that the different management centers have to respond to, in which it is appreciated, despite the extraordinary funds, that “insufficient management” it does not allow spending the budgeted in chapters VI and VII (Capital Transfers and Investments) where every year there is a significant non-execution, he comments.
Added to this problem, at the moment, is the slowness in the management of European funds (MRR and RECT-UE). “We hope that acceptable execution targets can be achieved and dynamism recovered throughout 2023,” he says.
ISLANDS
As insular needs, the Insular Conference Center stands out for La Gomera; in El Hierro, the insular sports city, the educational complex in Valverde as well as the insular Institute of Secondary Education and FP; in Fuerteventura, a medicalized helicopter based on the island; in Lanzarote, the access and parking of the José Molina Orosa Hospital; in La Graciosa, the fishermen’s gear warehouse and dock renovation in Caleta de Sebo; in Gran Canaria, the San Cristóbal Nautical-Fishing Center in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the second phase of the Landscape Corridor for pedestrians and bicycles between Telde and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and in Tenerife, commissioning of hospitals in the north and south de Tenerife as well as investment programs in the HUC and HUNSC.
And on all the islands, he stresses, support for investment in infrastructure and bus stops to adapt them to the increase in demand.
In the case of La Palma, he points out, “we have missed greater action on the part of both governments and above all a lack of receptivity to the proposals of others” because “the situation today is hopeless and our measures want to contribute to finding immediate solutions “.
Thus, in the amendment to the whole it is included, firstly, to provide La Palma with 100 million euros in 2023, and not simply as credit, and multi-yearly for at least 5 years.
For next year, a collaboration plan is also proposed with the College of Psychologists and the mental health association of La Palma, the recovery of banana farms under the lava and a project for planning the conditions and payment of lost properties. –not covered by the insurance consortium–.
“This is without counting the pending tasks, also included in the amendment, which we understand should be in a work plan for the recovery of La Palma, both by the Government of the Canary Islands and the Government of Spain,” he concludes.
