The president of the Canarian executive, Ángel Víctor Torres, has ruled out this Monday deflating the Personal Income Tax in 2023 at all income levels to compensate taxpayers for high inflation, but has stressed that in the autonomous budgets of next year there will be measures "to bring real income closer to nominal income" in the case of medium and low incomes.
Torres, who has responded in Parliament to several questions related to the measures planned to support citizens in the face of high inflation, has announced that there will also be direct aid and deductions for families who are having the worst time, although without specifying which ones.
The president has also announced that the fuel tax bonus for professionals, which is being applied in 2022, will continue in 2023.
The president ruled out deflating the Personal Income Tax in the autonomous section for all incomes because in his opinion it is "unfair" and the Government defends "that those who have more pay more" and "help those who are suffering the most", so that people with medium and low incomes will be supported "making real income closer to nominal income".
These support measures against inflation are adopted without "bankrupting" the welfare state, in contrast to autonomous communities "that lower taxes on the rich" and defend the interests of those who have the most at the expense of worsening public services and cited Andalusia and Madrid.
The president stated that it would be "shameless" to lower taxes for those who have incomes of 100,000 euros per year and also ruled out reducing the IGIC, because councils and town halls also benefit from that tax, which also need income to maintain public services.
Ángel Víctor Torres explained that the Government has acted prudently before announcing tax measures, and that is why he has waited to know the state funding available to the Canary Islands and the measures planned by the Government of Spain, in order to complement them. "And they are going to be good complements," he said.
Reactions from the opposition
The CC-PNC deputy Pablo Rodríguez reproached Torres that the measures he is now announcing "are late" and that some of them are proposals made by his party months ago and that the executive had rejected.
"We have proposed deflating the Personal Income Tax in the autonomous section or tax bonuses, surgical and temporary actions" that for the Government were until now "populist and demagogic" measures.
The PP deputy Manuel Domínguez accused Torres of being more aware of the elections than of the situation of the Canarian society, plagued by an inflation of 9.3%, by the closure of companies and by a risk of poverty in which 800,000 people find themselves.
Domínguez denounced the executive's refusal to lower taxes as his party asks and thus alleviate the high tax pressure on the islands.
"He is not capable of carrying out a single direct action, he does not have a plan," Domínguez told Torres.
The deputy of Ciudadanos, Ricardo Fernández de la Puente, also demanded a temporary "tax relief" to the citizens with measures such as the reduction of the IGIC and the deflation of the Personal Income Tax.
The ASG deputy Casimiro Curbelo opposed the reduction of the IGIC, because it would undermine "the coffers" of town halls and councils, which need the funds for the provision of services to citizens.
