Squaring the circle is sometimes impossible. On previous occasions during this legislature, the progressive coalition government has managed to achieve this and with the fiscal pact it has been on the verge of happening. The PSOE reached an agreement this Monday in extremis left and right on different tax issues, with the taxes on banking and energy companies.
Both now have the possibility of continuing after December 31 (when they expired as they are extraordinary taxes) if there are no more shocks, although it is still an unknown. Together position and the PNV on the agreement to extend the tax on energy companies reached late this Monday night between the PSOE and a front formed by ERC, EH Bildu and BNG.
But what was agreed, exactly, this Monday? They are two different things, although they are part of the same fiscal cocktail. On the one hand, the opinion of the Finance Commission was approved and, on the other, the sovereign leftists of the Chamber and the PSOE committed to carrying out a Royal Decree-Law to extend the tax on energy companies for one year. The Ministry of Finance, however, later reported that it will maintain the pact with Junts and will not tax energy companies that commit to decarbonization. It is difficult to combine both agreements and many explanations will be necessary.
Be that as it may, this Monday another chapter was written in the story of entanglements that the transposition of the European directive to impose a minimum tax of 15% on multinationals. “We started negotiating a directive and then it became a tax reform,” the deputy from Republican Left (ERC) Pilar Vallugera in one of his interventions at the beginning of a commission that became tangled and ended up lasting eight hours. The meeting adjourned around one in the morning.
The whole mess started several days ago, when Junts per Catalunya and Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) They negotiated with the PSOE a series of amendments that included maintaining, although with modifications, the banking tax, but dropping the energy tax. In other words, the commission would not only vote on the transposition of the European directive, but also on more fiscal measures. In turn, the socialists reached an agreement with Sumar to include, also via amendment, a package with tax reforms such as the increase in VAT on tourist rentals, a luxury tax and the end of the SOCIMI tax regime.
In principle, Sumar decided to sacrifice the tax on energy companies in order to carry out the fiscal package extracted from the PSOE. However, from the first moment the Republican Left (ERC), EH Bildu, Podemos and also the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) warned that it was not part of their plans to approve the commission’s opinion – the text that is subsequently voted on in plenary session – which would lead to the fall of the tax on electrical companies.
So much so that the Finance Commission in which this vote was to take place was suspended on two occasions: on Monday and Thursday of last week. Finally, it was celebrated this Monday. And not without uncertainty, recesses until almost midnight, conversations at the doors of the Commission and in the offices and confusion in the votes.
Finally, what has been agreed upon in committee is an opinion that includes the itax on multinationalsan increase of two points in personal income tax for higher incomesmore tax burden for the tobaccoa bank tax with an increase in its highest section and a legislative change to prevent companies from hydrocarbons enjoy tax benefits. All of this must be ratified this Thursday in the Plenary Session of the Congress of Deputies.
The tax on energy companies, for its part, will go through decree. This has been confirmed, at least, by sources from ERC, EH Bildu and BNG. Vallugera wanted to make it clear before the vote that the Government “commits” to extend the tax on energy companies. However, after one in the morning, a new twist has arrived. The Treasury has sent a statement explaining that “it maintains its agreement with Together to not tax energy companies that maintain their effective investment commitment for the decarbonization“.
This is information that can be analyzed in several ways. By specifying that energy companies “that maintain their effective investment commitment for decarbonization” will not be taxed, the PSOE may be trying to pave the way for a energy tax light acceptable for Junts. However, that could distance votes from Podemos. At the end of this frenetic and intense Monday, everything is open.
Devilish negotiations
From the socialist wing of the Government and the Ministry of Finance that leads Maria Jesus Monteropredicted that the multi-party negotiation had little chance of succeeding. “It is very complicated but we are going to try,” government sources insisted insistently last week. The weekend of talks had not borne fruit and on Monday, shortly before the start of the Finance Commission, the socialists began to give up.
The socialist deputy, Alicia Alvarezhe hinted at it this way during the Commission. “I know that we can be in greater or lesser agreement, we all make resignations to reach consensus, we are the first. We would like to be much more ambitious. But only with the agreement will we be able to carry out reforms, it will make our country stronger,” he said at the end. of his intervention.
The socialists recalled, according to sources consulted during these days, that the parliamentary arithmetic is what it is. And that there are groups that “seem not to be aware” of the situation and are in “maximum positions.” There is a factor that was also put on the table in the Government of Pedro Sánchez. They have not hidden it, not even the president himself. This is the ERC Congress, which conditions, according to the socialists, the conversations specifically with this group.
They also looked to the PSOE for the role of Cana party that they believe is “wrong in the diagnosis” because they think, erroneously according to the socialists, that there will be no Budget. For this reason, they explain, they play their cards with approaches “that are not viable.” Specifically, beyond the tax reform, they mention the demands of the purple party regarding the break with Israel and the reduction of rental prices as a condition for approving the public accounts. Precisely, the general secretary of Podemos highlighted that the tax on energy companies “without guarantees that Junts will also support it is little more than a dead letter.”
Some General State Budgets (PGE) that they disengage, they insist in Moncloa, from these conversations about the fiscal package. In this sense, they are not throwing in the towel and this Monday’s agreement can serve as a breath of fresh air in the face of the complexity of reaching economic agreements between groups of different ideologies. As long as it goes ahead.
#PSOE #left #reach #fiscal #pact #limit #tax #energy #companies #remains #hands #Junts #PNV
