[News] The Government is now trying to distance itself from the tax increases promised to Brussels

[SougarLord]

 

the clock is already ticking the countdown to the approval of the labor measures sent to Brussels within the Recovery Plan based on the deadlines that have been set by the Government. "We will never again hear a government tell citizens that they have to tighten their belts", defended yesterday the third vice president and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, despite the fact that the document includes tax increases to be able to achieve, in the long term, close the public revenue gap with Europe. A plan that has also qualified the head of the Treasury and Government spokesperson, María Jesús Montero, stating that the measures contemplated would be insufficient to enter the 80,000 million that it aspires to achieve the level of collection with Europe.

 

On the side of the reforms, Díaz was blunt in stating that all the reforms "have to be published in the BOE before the end of 2021" because "the deadlines in law are not discussed, they are met." In response to journalists' questions, Díaz also advanced that she will reach agreements with social agents before the end of this year because "European funds depend on these country transformations."

 

"Component 23" is well known by those who meet on the fourth floor of this Ministry. Although I never give deadlines in case they are not met, in this case we risk our country. And I think that the precariousness figures cannot be extended any further, ”added the Minister of Labor. "We have set a date and it must be met," she added.

 

During the presentation of the measures in labor matters sent to the EU, Díaz considered that the Government is going to "provoke a real revolution in the Spanish labor market." For the third vice president, "the legislature begins now" and she did not hesitate to express that the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and she are "more united than ever." "We are not going to Europe to learn, Europe also learns with what Spain is doing," said Díaz, who reviewed laws such as that relating to 'riders' –which reaches the Council of Ministers today–, that of labor to distance or the royal decree of salary equality.

 

Along these lines, the Minister of Labor affirmed that "a new social contract" will be rewritten with job stability as the central axis so that young people and those over 45 years of age do not stay out of the labor market at the same time as guarantees access to a retirement pension. For Díaz, the labor reform that she raises not only supposes an «amendment» to the one of the PP of 2012, but it goes much further by its «ambitious» content. Díaz commented that these transformations in the labor market cannot be carried out without putting young people at the center to pay off the "enormous debt" of Spanish society with them.

 

One of the novelties that Trabajo wants to implement is the simplification of long-term unemployment protection aids or for the unemployed who have not covered the minimum contribution period, as well as the creation of a new benefit that would integrate all existing ones and that It would come into force from 2022. According to the document, the amount would amount to 80% of the Iprem, that is, 451.90 euros per month, according to the 2021 indicator.

 

Tax cuts?

On the fiscal side, the bulk of tax changes that the Government will approve this legislature will come into effect when GDP reaches its pre-crisis level. In the Recovery Plan sent to Brussels, the Executive undertakes that the fiscal reform will erupt in 2023, the date that corresponds to when the macroeconomic framework estimates that the economy will regain its 2019 level, the Finance Minister explained at a press conference, Maria Jesus Montero.

 

The Government expects a growth of 7% in 2022, yes. What will happen if these estimates are not met? Everything will go according to plan. If we do not get to that moment, the whole calendar changes, "said Montero, noting that the reform will graduate as the economy recovers. The also Government spokesperson opened the door, even, to approve specific tax cuts in 2023, the last year of the legislature, within the tax reform: "If so proposed by the committee of experts, there could even be tax cuts" .

 

In any case, she defended that with the proposals included in the plan, Spain will continue without closing the public income gap with Europe, 7.2 points of GDP, equivalent to 80,000 million euros. She also added that it will continue to collect less from environmental taxation than the Eurozone average. Anyway, the taxation that affects mobility will go in a separate package, she pointed out, in what will affect the fiscal changes to diesel, registration and circulation.