The commitment of this Government of Spain to the Canary Islands has once again been demonstrated these days with the presentation of the draft law of the new General State Budgets for the year 2023. Accounts committed to social justice and economic efficiency, which are also in line with the uniqueness of the Canary Islands and the expectations of progress of our land. It is not an opinion, it is the objective data that speaks.
The Canary Islands file increases by 14% compared to the current year and the investment per inhabitant grows to 416 euros per capita, above the national average. And together with this, the funds from regional financing are placed at 6,519 million euros, 24% more, thus reinforcing the response capacity of our essential services: education, health, social rights.
Those who said that the budgets of 2018 were the best in the history of the Canary Islands, should now be the first to recognize that these accounts are manifestly better than then. There are, for example, the more than 450 million euros included in the economic and fiscal REF with respect to the accounts of that year. Or the Comprehensive Employment Plan of the Canary Islands, which for the first time rises to 45 million.
It is a reality that in these years in government responsibilities the socialists have reoriented the budgetary policy towards greater social justice and transformation of our productive model, to which has been added in recent years an unprecedented effort in response and protection measures, as a result of the pandemic first and the war later, aimed at the middle and working classes of our country and, especially, the most vulnerable.
In this sense, the new Budgets are exemplary and incorporate actions such as the increase of 8.5% in minimum pensions and the Minimum Basic Income, with more than 427,000 beneficiaries in the Canary Islands, or the 2.5% increase in the salary of public employees, which in the islands covers more than 132,000 workers.
In addition, more than 48,000 Canary Islands students will take advantage of the increase in the item for scholarships and almost 4,000, of the extension of the young rental voucher. All these measures are aimed at shielding the purchasing power of a high percentage of our population, in times of inflation, by a government that is supportive and especially committed to equality and territorial cohesion.
The 2023 PGE allocate to the Canary Islands a total investment of 1,508.10 million euros and an indirect investment (capital transfers) of 482 million euros. Direct investments include 391.8 million euros, an increase of no less than 8.1%, and the 5 million item for the implementation of the National Volcanology Center is a new addition.
In addition to this, the Canary Islands will receive more than 520 million euros for subsidies to maritime, air and freight transport, and a specific item of 10 million for banana transport.
Thanks to Pedro Sánchez's Executive, the payments corresponding to the Road Agreement, 410 million in total, will also be made effective, and other measures such as the tourist resilience plans, agricultural aid such as those of the Posei or the reconstruction project of La Palma, with nominal funds for this island in terms of housing, employment and environment worth 37.5 million euros, will materialize.
The 2023 budgets will also allow to promote a fairer, more progressive and efficient taxation, making it easier for more than 228,000 Canary Islands workers to benefit from the reduction for work income, while 16,000 Canary Islands companies will do so from the reduction foreseen in the Corporate Tax.
It is not only a budget that complies with our Archipelago, but also increases the resources foreseen, consolidating the commitment of this socialist Government to the basic pillars of the Welfare State; accounts, moreover, that can and should still be improved in the parliamentary process.
Let's trust that all political formations are able to live up to the task, prioritizing the general interest. Spain is at stake and the Canary Islands too.
