The President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, announced this Wednesday that the Minister of the Economy, Alicia Romero, Work has already begun on the deployment of the “singular financing” or economic agreement for the community, following the stages of the investiture agreement between the CPS and the ERC. Illa stressed that “the results will soon be visible” and that for the transfer to be effective, his government will quadruple the current resources of the Tax Agency of Catalonia (ATC).
Illa thus responded to questions from the leader of the ERC in the Catalan chamber, Josep Maria Jové, who put pressure on Illa by warning him that the legislator “It makes no sense if there is no real, tangible progress” in terms of financingin a veiled threat to withdraw support, the second this week. Jové asked him for “real details” on what his government will do to strengthen the Catalan tax administration.
According to the report published in 2023, the ATC has 852 employees and a budget of just over 92 million euros, which, if the promises of the Catalan president come true, should increase to around 3,400 employees and almost 370 million euros budget.
Important figures which aroused the suspicions of the organizations which represent tax workers. They suspect that an expansion of these characteristics This can only be achieved at the cost of integrating the staff and resources of the state agency. of the tax administration (AEAT). Something which, according to what the general secretary of the Union of Treasury Technicians (Gestha) and the Association of State Treasury Inspectors (IHE) explained to ABC, is easier said than done , especially in terms of personnel.
THE AEAT has 3,800 employees in Catalonia -almost the same ones that the Generalitat will need for its fiscal organization- and a good part come from other autonomous communities. According to José María Peláez, spokesperson for the associations of Treasury inspectors, “the majority would not want to stay in Catalonia”, and the same can be said of the Treasury technicians, among whom transfer requests are already higher than in other communities. to José María Mollinedo, secretary general of Gestha.
“Multiply the Catalan Treasury by four or assume management of income tax from 2025 This cannot be done if it is not about transferring state agency personnel. of the Tax Administration to the Catalan agency”, they say from the Association of State Treasury Inspectors. “Everything indicates that they are going to take steps in the assault, knowing that it will then be impossible to go back. “It is a real scandal, with very serious consequences in the application of the tax system and in the fight against tax fraud, even if it seems that no politician cares,” they warn.
Illa, during the first government control session after the May 14 elections and the August inauguration, reiterated his commitment to respect and respect the agreement between the CPS and the ERC: “We will respect not only agreement, but also the deadlines that the agreement itself contains, which are ambitious”, he emphasized. And he defended once again that it is essential for Catalonia to have “fair financing”, without privileges, even whether a system of economic consultation for the Generalitat will mean fewer resources for other regions.
In this sense, Jové demanded “real details” on how to move forward in this direction and what the Government will do so that the Tax Agency of Catalonia can assume the powers of all taxes, provided for in the agreement investiture. It was then that Illa replied that, without a doubt, they would take “the necessary measures to resize” the Catalan Treasury, which must quadruple its resources and dimensions.
Limited redistribution
On the other hand, in response to a question from the PP, Minister Romero defended the redistribution of wealth and a fiscal policy with the fiscal pressure exerted by the Generalitat to “reduce inequalities”. According to Romero, to “strengthen the welfare state” it is necessary to redistribute the wealth generated, even if it limits this action with the rest of the regions by defending the economic agreement and, therefore, limiting this redistribution between the autonomous communities.
“We govern for the whole world,” replied the Minister of Juan Fernández, the PP deputy who asked the oral question during the control session at the Government -, to generate wealth and redistribute it. “You only want to lower taxes on the rich, we stand up for families,” he said. And he attacked the fiscal policy of the Community of Madrid because he indicated that “This harms the inequalities that exist in Spain.”
The fiscal policy of the Generalitat, Romero defended, must reflect the formula according to which “anyone the more you earn, WHO the more he has, “He who inherits the most, he who pollutes the most, pays more.” A formula that would not apply in the event that regional financing is reformed according to what has been agreed by the ERC and the COPS, provided that redistribution throughout Spain is included.
