The 2025 general budgets are on the table. THE demands of Pedro Sánchez’s coalition partner also. Sumar refuses to remove the bank taxes and energetic ones who arrived temporarily, but They aim to establish themselves as permanent. The current Minister of the Economy, Carlos Body, estimated a few days ago that it was necessary to modify in search of a “balance”. He new governor of the Bank of Spain and Sánchez’s former minister, José Luis Escriva, also thinks along these lines: “We must try to make the tax as neutral as possible.” An opinion which, however, does not coincide with that of another investiture partner. The PNV calls for controlling taxes on energy companies after Repsol has decided to move its project to Portugal of renewable hydrogen. They describe the sector as the “goose that lays the golden eggs”.
The idea of neutrality was emphasized by Escriva from his new office, where he gave his first interview as governor and to the economic newspaper ‘Expansión’. In search of this neutrality, Escriva considers that the “contribution” of the organization he now leads “to this debate can focus on design”. This is why he maintains that “it would seem desirable” to modify it “compared to its current formulation, which does not reduce provisions and this poses problems in at least two areas.
“On the one hand, there are banking activities which involve more risk, for example credit to SMEs, but which also involve more provisions. To the extent that you do not deduct provisions from the tax base, you can be penalizing in relative terms a banking activity on which. taxation should be neutral“, he explains to the aforementioned media.
Given the fact that these can be higher “during the lowest part of economic cycles (…), the tax base may not adequately reflect the profitability of the entities”, explains Escriva. Another issue that the former minister highlights as a negative point when it comes to achieving this fiscal neutrality is that of set a minimum income. A neutrality of which Iñigo Errejón de Sumar says he is unaware, even if he recognizes that since its creation, they have been “flexible in discussions on the conditions under which the tax would be made permanent”, while emphasizing that “it must impose extraordinary benefits. “
Escriva, maintaining that the Bank of Spain we must “restrain ourselves when we talk about taxes”Since “it is the democratically elected bodies” which decide on the redistribution part, he ensures that the opinion of the organization he directs is “relevant”. Above all, knowing that it is “an area like the banking sector” and that the debate focused “on the design” of the tax.
Although he emphasizes that his institution has “the greatest respect” for them, he avoids affirming or denying whether he will actively transmit his vision to the government, to which he belonged not so long ago. Precisely, regarding the criticisms regarding political interference in institutions, harshly criticized by the opposition to Sánchez and by the opposition of the PP in Europe to meeting him for this reason, he considers that we must “return to a situation of normality as soon as possible for the benefit of all”.
Asked, even, if he was forced to accentuate his independence during these first months of mandate and in relation to the analysis of the Bank of Spain concerning a revision of the law on autonomyEscriva remembers that “for six years” he chaired “an independent institution like Airef”. There, he assures that he has already given “particular importance to the elements of transparency and accountability”because “the more independent an institution that has delegated powers is, the more it must strengthen its mechanisms of openness, transparency and accountability”. He therefore declares that this question is “something” that he has “very internalized”.
