Warning from the Government's Guarantee Council regarding the increase in the tourist tax

BarcelonaThe Government ignored the Statute with the decree law to double the tourist tax agreed with Esquerra i ComunsThis is the conclusion reached by the Council of Statutory Guarantees, which analyzed the regulations that doubled this tax and enabled municipalities to establish a four-euro surcharge to allocate more resources to housing policies. The ruling, which is not binding, is the result of a complaint filed by Junts, which accused the Catalan government of wanting to govern "by decree," outside the ordinary legislative procedure, and attempting to approve a budget "through the back door." Carles Puigdemont's group also challenged a series of tax changes to which the guarantees body also draws the attention of the Catalan government: among others, the reduction of personal income tax on incomes below 33,000 euros, which does not meet the requirement of "extraordinary and urgent need" that justifies the Government legislating by decree law, rather than submitting a bill to the Catalan Parliament.

In the case of the tourist tax and the surcharge, the Guarantees Council goes further and highlights that the executive has interfered in what should be decided in the Catalan parliament. "The doubling of the rate—which, as already stated, is classified by Law 5/2017 itself as an essential element of the tax—goes beyond what could be a mere update or even a minor change in relation to the tax itself, and should be considered, on the contrary, as a substantive modification, which is covered by reservation 3). highlights the opinion, adopted by a very narrow majority on this point: 5 votes in favor and 4 against. This decree infuriated the hotel sector and it marked the first clash between the Isla Government and the employers' association.

Together demands that they withdraw

Given this decision, Junts is now demanding that the Catalan government rectify and withdraw the two decrees containing these measures, pending submission to the plenary session after the Easter holidays. What will the executive do? Sources from the Ministry of Economy express their respect for the decisions, although they emphasize that "they are not binding." However, they are being studied "carefully and thoroughly." The government had justified many of the fiscal adjustments in these decrees to address the lack of budgets following the No ERC to sit down and negotiate them and ask the executive to talk now, if at all, about those for 2026. Typically, all these modifications are usually made in the accompanying law for the accounts. Other measures in both contested decrees, such as the increase in salaries for civil servants or the property transfer tax for large holders, receive the endorsement of the Guarantees Council.

The last time the Guarantees Council challenged the government over a decree law that was not urgent, the executive steered it back by accepting that it be processed as a bill in the Catalan parliament (in fact, this is also what the body recommends if the Ministry of Economy prefers to stick to the law). On that occasion, it was with the decree on urgent measures in housing that, in the parliamentary negotiations with ERC and Comuns, was ultimately materialized in the agreement to regulate seasonal rentals and preserve social housing that was about to enter the open market.