Junts per Catalunya has delivered this Wednesday to the Government of the Generalitat, in a meeting on the 2023 budgets, a document with their demands to negotiate the accounts of the Generalitat, as announced a few weeks ago. “They are the bases for negotiating the budget and it is a serious, possible and rigorous proposal, it is not designed from an ideological bias but from the needs of the country”, pointed out the general secretary of the formation, Jordi Turull, in an attention to the media. “We insist on fair taxation,” added the leader of JxCat.
The training has articulated the proposal in five axes -economic development, rights and social cohesion: equity and security, Catalan: language, culture and the media, territorial balance and national sovereignty-, with outstanding measures in the field of taxation, education or security.
Thus, Junts advocates deflating personal income tax by 3.5% in all sections to alleviate the effects of runaway inflation and to review and reduce the inheritance tax progressively so that it returns to 2011 levels, with a bonus 99% for acquisitions due to the death of a first degree relative (parents, siblings or children).
“If the personal income tax is not deflated, it is like a hidden tax increase with additional income for the administrations, because inflation will end up above 7% this year and salary increases will not reach that level. We calculate an average increase of 3.5% , which is what the union organizations ask for on average. You can skip a stage and if it is not deflated, you will lose purchasing power,” JxCat sources point out.
Junts is also committed to lowering the personal income tax by 0.5% in the lowest bracket, up to 10%, so that the lowest incomes pay the same tax in Catalonia as in other territories of the State, and increase the personal and family minimum income tax a 7.5% due to inflation. Another measure is tax protection in the succession of family businesses to allow their continuity, reaching a discount of 99%. “If the personal and family exempt minimum is not touched, you also end up paying more taxes, and there are already communities that have provided for it,” add the sources consulted.
In the end, the modification of the wealth tax is not included in the tax proposal, although the possibility of raising the exempt minimum to 2012 levels had been considered, up to 700,000 euros instead of the current 500,000, or that people arriving from foreigners did not have to pay for the assets accumulated before arriving in Catalonia if there was a commitment to stay with the acquisition of a home or similar circumstances. But the training, to facilitate the agreement, has ruled out that point, which only affects 1% of citizens. “We do not ask for the moon,” they say in Junts. “No measure is for the elites, it is for all the families of the country,” they maintain in the formation.
Other notable proposals are in the field of education. JxCat asks to update and increase the price of the subsidized school modules by 30% and budgetary reversal of the underfunding of the subsidized school without prejudice to the public school. “The public is not prepared for the concerted school to be removed. We are in favor of improving the public school, yes. But another problem is brewing in the concerted school and due to ideological prejudices”, lament the post-convergents, who also include guaranteeing universality of the gratuity of the P2 with the concertation of places.
In terms of security, the formation calls for the creation of a unit of the Mossos d’Esquadra specialized in criminal occupations, a matter on which the party has been insisting for weeks. In fact, the former heads of JustÃcia and Drets Socials, Lourdes Ciuró and Violant Cervera, had promoted changes in the Catalan civil code so that residents or local administrations could denounce in these cases and not only the owners, since in many cases the big forks don’t act.
In the field of health, it is committed to a budget increase of 5,000 million euros in five years and to allocate 25% of the health budget to strengthen primary care, increase items destined for mental health by 10% and advance the Social Integrated Agency and Sanità ria, as planned with ex-councilor Josep Maria Argimon and ex-councillor Cervera.
Likewise, a commitment is requested to advance without delay in the Hard Rock project and approve the urban development plan before the end of the year, as planned and that the necessary investments are carried out in 2023, or the creation of INCAOLI , the Institut Català de l’Oli and complete the deployment of fiber optics throughout the Catalan territory.
In the last section, all Government departments are called upon to work with a state mentality and to work to reduce dependence on the State and an increase of 80 million euros in the promotion and promotion of Catalan also appears in the proposal.
“We are not going with red lines and all or nothing, but neither can they tell us that only two measures are accepted,” they warn in Junts, which ensures “they will not play to delay” the negotiation times.
The Government of Pere Aragonès has accelerated its negotiations with the groups in recent days and yesterday met with the PSC, which is emerging as a likely partner, although perhaps not at the rate expected by the Catalan Executive. The common ones for their part, with less weight in the Parliament, have met on more occasions with the Government, but their support without the help of the socialists or the post-convergents is insufficient.
