The PP believes that, if Pedro Sánchez is finally inaugurated, next year there will be “an escalation of taxes” to try to balance the public accounts. This is the conclusion reached by the Popular Party’s Deputy Secretary of Economy, Juan Bravo, since the PSOE has committed to meeting the objective of leaving the deficit at 3% of GDP in 2024, one year ahead of schedule. and despite the fact that some of the main analysis houses assure that it will not achieve it.
This is what Bravo has warned in statements to the media after a meeting held in Genoa with the Treasury councilors of the communities governed by the PP, and in which Alberto Núñez Feijóo and his number two, Cuca Gamarra, were present.
“When the Government points out that it will meet the 3% objectives [in 2024] when the rest of the entities say that they will not meet them, that leads us to think about an increase in taxes as has happened in the previous five years “said Bravo. And that, she has pointed out, “is of great concern to the autonomous communities.”
“We are concerned because given the enormous difficulties that families are going through due to the increase in the CPI or mortgages, taxes are being raised, and those families that have the most difficulties do not receive either the aid of 200 euros or the minimum vital income,” has explained.
Juan Bravo has reproached the Sánchez Government for not convening the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, where he believes it should make clarifications on payments on account or the deficit.
It must be remembered that the deficit closed 2022 at 4.8%, after a reduction of 50% in two years. Reducing it to 3% in 2024 would mean complying with new EU tax rules, which will apply from January.
In the opinion of the economic leader of the PP, this occurs because the autonomies assume expenses that are actually from the Central Administration. “While the communities have consolidated, according to Airef, the 40% of health and social policy spending that was derived from Covid and that has come to stay, it seems logical that the Government assumes that and helps with transfers to the autonomies,” has insisted.
Instead, the Executive “can again increase or introduce new taxes” if Sánchez achieves the investiture, sources from the PP’s Deputy Secretary of Economy insist to this newspaper.
“If the Government legislates measures that others will pay for, it is not loyalty” or “co-governance,” he said. Furthermore, “the increase in pensioners will entail an additional cost in health, dependency and social policies” that will be borne by the regional coffers. “We have to be prepared. Five years later, we continue with the same financing system. If they are not going to change it, they should create a compensation mechanism,” at the very least, the popular deputy secretary has stressed.
On the other hand, Bravo has warned the PSOE that “if they are going to forgive Catalonia’s debt, let us know what the conditions are, because we understand that the principle of equality will prevail.” In other words, if one were condoned, they should all be condoned.