The Minister of Economy and Hisenda, Natàlia Mas, warned this morning about dysfunctions in the regional financing system. In a letter to the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, the counselor has said that “requiring budget balance from the autonomous communities for 2024 is unfair and disproportionate” and has demanded that the deficit target be set at 1%.
In addition, the councilor has demanded that the Government report on the income forecast of the financing model in order to correctly prepare the budgets. “Although the foreseeable extension of the General State Budgets during the first months of 2024 may make it difficult to know the forecast for deliveries on account, that is no reason not to have the settlement forecast for the 2022 financial year,” she indicates in the letter. .
In July, the Generalitat published the order to prepare the 2024 budgets, but to prepare them it is necessary to forecast income from the financing model, which represents 80% of the Generalitat’s resources.
Regarding the deficit objectives, the councilor recalls that they have not yet been approved and that they could be reviewed. In this sense, Mas reiterates to Montero that the communities should have a deficit “proportional to the public spending they assume,” which is a third of the total. Taking into account that the central Executive’s forecast for 2024 is a deficit of 3%, the Generalitat points out that the communities should be able to have approximately 1%.
