The Catalan government aligns itself with ERC against Montero and defends 100% income tax collection.

BarcelonaThe government clashes with the Ministry of Finance and defends the Catalan government's right to collect 100% of personal income tax. The position of Salvador Illa's administration, in fact, aligns with that of Esquerra, which last week presented the law that should provide protection to the Catalan Tax Agency (ATC) to collect this tax. A rule that does not support the head of the Treasury, María Jesús Montero"We are focused on defending a fair financing model with 100 percent collection of personal income tax and the principle of ordinality," stated Silvia Paneque, Government spokesperson and Regional Minister for Territory, at a press conference following the Executive Council meeting. These words demonstrate a different position from that defended this Monday by the Ministry of Finance, which opposed the possibility of the autonomous communities collecting this tax in full. "The path we have set for ourselves is one of agreement, dialogue, and solutions between institutions with the support of social stakeholders," defended the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, hours later, who admitted that this path "will not be, is not, and is not being, easy or quick."

Nevertheless, the President emphasized that the goal is "sufficiently important" for the Government to take it "seriously" and be "tenacious and persistent." In this regard, Paneque reiterated that the executive's commitment is to fulfill the agreement signed with the ERC (Republican Socialist Workers' Party) for the investiture of Salvador Illa: "The Government agreed with the ERC to have the capacity to manage and collect taxes with full regulatory authority. This, in full collaboration with the Spanish government to finance its own services and participate in territorial solidarity." In this regard, the Government believes that the position of the Ministry of Finance is within the framework of ongoing negotiations and is confident of reaching a "responsible and fair agreement" that will lead to the "progressive" collection of personal income tax and guarantee "fair financing for Catalonia."

"We do not find it contradictory that there may be other proposals on the table," he noted. In this regard, Paneque added that it is "normal" for each executive to "focus on its responsibilities and objectives" and admitted that the negotiation is "complex." However, the fact is that right now the Ministry of Finance's proposal is not in line with what was established in the investiture agreement. The department headed by María Jesús Montero defended this Monday that its objective is to present a proposal to reform the entire autonomous community financing model so that it is "compatible with complying with the signed agreements and creating a model that can be extended to the rest of the autonomous communities."

The men For months, representatives of the PP, but also of the PSOE, have been criticizing the financing model agreed with the ERC. Isla, in this regard, has once again defended the agreement and warned: "We will not be swayed by those who confront territories or by those who practice fiscal selfishness and institutional blockage." "Reason always prevails over noise," he added. The president of the Generalitat (Catalan government) has praised Catalonia's leadership in this reform of regional financing: "Standing still is not the solution."

The call from unions and employers

Pressure on the Ministry of Finance has also come from unions and employers' associations (UGT, CCOO, PIMEC, and Foment del Treball), which, in a joint statement with the government, demanded that the new financing be approved to "guarantee the sufficiency of public resources" and provide "excellent services to citizens." In fact, the text was defended by the President of the Generalitat (Catalan Government), Salvador Illa, within the framework of the Social Dialogue Council, which met this afternoon. "We call on all parties involved to move forward with the specification and approval of a new financing model for Catalonia as soon as possible, with the necessary political consensus to make it a reality," they say in the joint statement.

In this sense, they call for the new financing to be promoted and for Catalonia to assume the "responsibilities of personal income tax." "Catalonia must continue advancing in the deployment of the Catalan Treasury, with the aim of progressively managing taxes," they add, always "guaranteeing" "coordination" between the state and Catalan treasuries. In the joint declaration, they also advocate that Catalonia's "uniqueness" be recognized in the new financing model that the Spanish government must present for all regions. The design of this new autonomous system must guarantee "bilateral treatment" of Catalonia with the State, "without prejudice to participation in multilateral spaces," they argue.

The clash over ordinality

This isn't the first time that the position of Salvador Illa's executive has clashed with that of the Spanish government. This happened this summer with the principle of ordinality. This is one of the issues that the Catalan Socialists have been advocating for months: that when it comes to distributing resources, Catalonia should not drop in the ranking of autonomous regions based on its contributions. Salvador Illa himself did so during the campaign for the last Catalan elections. However, at the last meeting of the Bilateral Commission in July, which was supposed to serve to approve the rollout of the new financing model, This principle was left out of the text signed between the two socialist executives.: It only appeared as a position that Catalonia defends, but without the Spanish government assuming it.

As long as the positions on the financing agreement do not come closer together, one of the issues at stake is the Catalan and state budgets. ERC has already said that it will not sit down to negotiate any of the accounts if steps are not taken on financing, such as the approval of its bill on the ATC. For the moment, the Spanish government has already prepared the macroeconomic framework, the preliminary step toward presenting the budget bill. In Catalonia, Paneque has not yet set a date for when the Catalan government will present its draft, although the goal is for it to be in force by January 1.