2023-11-11 05:04:00
The financing system would have its days numbered if the total transfer to the Generalitat of the collection of 100% of the taxes generated in the region were consummated, as proposed by Junts in the pact to support the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and that has been signed by the PSOE. This measure would threaten the Welfare State and the public system itself by reducing the income that finances the country’s services and that would have to be assumed by regions that now receive more than they contribute, practically all of them, except the Community of Madrid, Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.
Currently, and according to the latest data updated by the Ministry of Finance, Catalans contributed a total of 51,131 million euros in collection of state taxes in 2022, those corresponding to personal income tax, VAT, corporations and special taxes. Of this total count, the different updates to guarantee the transfer of powers to the Catalan government increased tax control over personal income tax and VAT to 50%, and up to 58% in the case of special taxes, without having any capacity to performance on what was collected in Companies, which was 6,201 million last year. Therefore, it was able to directly manage up to 10,595 million in Income and another 8,835 in VAT, in addition to 713 corresponding to special taxes: a total of 26,344 million.
If this transfer were to be consummated, which would open the door to the creation of a Catalan Treasury, another 28,000 million would have to be added to this figure, corresponding to the percentage of taxes that it now does not control, plus what is collected by Companies. Always under the calculation of the year 2022, since if the forecasts made by the Ministry of Finance itself are fulfilled, an extra 7.7% of collection growth would have to be added to the total amount in 2023. In total, the final collection of 100% It would touch 55,000 million under independence control.
An enormous amount if compared to the 92,517 million that the Treasury has transferred so far this year to the autonomous communities of the common regime as payments on account of the financing system. This amount represents 9,060 million more, almost 11%, than the 83,457 million euros of the same period in 2022. In the month of September alone, these territorial entities have received 10,280 million, compared to 9,273 million a year ago, that is That is, 1,007 million more. And, of course, the community that has received the most resources until September has been Catalonia, with 17,441 million, which means 37,600 million less than what they would control under their own Treasury, to the detriment of the rest of the communities, since the autonomous quota pay and that must be agreed upon – as in the case of regional governments – would not be even remotely close to that figure, despite the fact that to those 17,441 million we would have to add the deliveries on account of the Global Sufficiency Fund and the transfer of the Fund of Guarantee of Fundamental Public Services, the result of the estimation of tax revenues based on the economic forecasts included in the General State Budgets.
According to Fedea, the total volume of financing of the autonomous communities of the common regime – measured by homogeneous powers and equal fiscal effort – experienced an increase of 16% in 2021, about 18,000 million compared to 2020, mainly due to the recovery of regional and state tax revenues after the collapse caused by the pandemic crisis. This increase has been mitigated to some extent by the reduction of some 2,500 million euros in extraordinary transfers from the State to address this situation. For the last two years, the resources subject to liquidation provided by the system fell slightly in 2022 (-0.87%) and have rebounded strongly in 2023 (+19.3%), according to previous estimates.
The income of the autonomous communities under the current regional financing system (SFA) comes from the collection of taxes transferred totally or partially by the State and from their participation in a series of Funds that channel state transfers to regional governments and redistribute resources among them. The most important of these funds is the Guarantee Fund, which is funded by 75% of the theoretical or regulatory tax revenues of the autonomous communities and with an additional contribution from the State. The resources derived from the Guarantee Fund and 25% of regional tax revenues – which are not integrated into it – are complemented through a Sufficiency Fund – similar to the one existing in the previous system – and two new Convergence Funds Autonomous Community, which are also financed with State resources. “These Convergence Funds serve to introduce some final touches in the distribution of resources in favor of the richest regions, the poorest and the worst treated by the rest of the system,” they explain from Fedea.
For this reason, this system of equality and equity between rich and poor communities would collapse with the departure of the common regime by Catalonia, something that the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, denied yesterday, denying the very basis of the agreement signed between the PSOE and Junts. “At no time has it been raised either for Catalonia or for any other community,” he flatly denied, preferring to refer to the paragraph in which the PSOE undertakes to approve measures “that allow financial autonomy and access to the Catalan market.” , as well as a «unique dialogue on the impact of the current Catalan financing model. That is, each party makes a proposal in fiscal terms and they commit to reaching an agreement. That is the truth,” according to Montero.
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