The Minister of Finance, Economy and Public Administration, Ruth Merino, announced this afternoon that the 99% bonus on the Inheritance and Donation Tax is the “first step” for the Valencian Community to become one of the regions fiscally more attractive. She has also assured that one of her priorities in the legislature will be to promote different "fiscal relief for all" measures, which contribute to reactivating the economy by attracting investments.
During his appearance in Les Corts to explain the main lines of his department in the legislature, he pointed out that the elimination of the inheritance and donation tax is "the beginning of the path", since it was about ending "a great injustice and immorality." . "We are not lowering taxes on the rich," Merino assured, anticipating the criticism that both the PSPV and Compromís have made in their interventions.
The councilor has assured that the objective is for the Community to stop being one of the regions with the highest tax burden and become one of the "fiscally most attractive" regions because, as she said, "insufficient financing" or "waste "They are not compensated by squeezing the taxpayer."
He has advanced that throughout the legislature measures will be taken so that the lowest income brackets "pay less taxes in the Community than in any other region", and he has specified that these policies do not imply impoverishing public coffers, nor undermining public services, nor the rights of citizens.
Before explaining the axes of his project, Merino has carried out a diagnosis of the situation in which the Valencian Treasury has found itself, marked by an "unaffordable and exorbitant" debt and by a deficit that in 2022 stood at 3,847 million, as consequence of the fact that the previous Consell "spent beyond our means."
He has defended that the citizens of the Community "deserve better services and more and better management", and to this end, he has indicated that it is a priority to "strongly demand" the reform of the financing system "so that we are assigned the resources that by justice and by right they belong to us".
Regarding the Generalitat's Budget for 2024, on which his department is already working, Merino has stated that they will be "real, and not fictitious" budgets, "based on rigor and responsibility."
The fight against tax fraud and the underground economy will also be part of the "rigorous management" of public resources from a triple perspective: prevention, control and cooperation, he explained.
After recalling that the Consell's premise is "not to disturb" economic activity, he defended the role that entities such as the Valencian Institute of Finance (IVF) can play, without losing sight of "the necessary financial sustainability of the operations in which they intervene."
The rationalization of investment will be realized through the "exquisite" use of the resources of Valencians and the elimination of duplications and "superfluous" expenses, and the Instrumental Public Sector will be reorganized, after detailed economic and financial analysis, through mergers and , if applicable, extinctions.
The socialist deputy José Muñoz has described the current Government as that of "change and regression" and has accused it of lowering taxes on the richest while making the rest of the citizens pay more.
From Compromís, Isaura Navarro has criticized that the minister comes to Les Corts like a Robin Hood, when she is more like the British minister Liv Truss, who resigned 45 days after taking office, after a fiscal plan that included a massive reduction of taxes that sowed chaos in the markets and distrust in the economy.
"I don't look like Robin Hood because I'm not going to rob anyone, I'm going to help everyone live better, starting with those who need it most," replied Merino, who insisted that they are not going to lower taxes on rich or to make cuts and has defended that there is "room for improvement to use each euro in a more efficient way."
