It also proposes changing the VAT reduction on basic foods, pasta and oils for direct aid to vulnerable families.
MADRID, 28 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The deputy secretary of Economy of the PP and deputy for Seville, Juan Bravo, has indicated that the 37.5-hour work week proposed by PSOE and Sumar “already exists in practice” and has expressed his desire to eliminate taxes on banks and energy companies due to the flight of investments that they may cause.
Regarding the reduction of the working day, one of the most talked about measures in the Government agreement between PSOE and Sumar, Bravo recalled that currently it is already allowed for employers and workers to agree on a working day below 40 hours per week and, even , some already work four days a week. For this reason, he has emphasized the need to “not make empty speeches about something that already exists in practice.”
For the deputy, what is relevant is to propose measures that address aspects such as productivity, the creation of quality employment or how to generate a greater number of permanent contracts. “We need our workers to have better salaries and for that we have to win as a country in productivity,” he stressed in statements to RNE’s ‘Parliament’ collected by Europa Press.
Another issue that Juan Bravo has referred to is the extraordinary tax on banks and energy companies that PSOE and Sumar want to make permanent if they form a Government. The main economic voice of the PP has advocated eliminating them due to the risks they may entail for the economy, after companies such as Repsol have suggested a transfer of investments from Spain to Portugal due to the tax.
Last July, before the general elections, both Bravo and the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, were in favor of making some modifications to extraordinary taxes so that they would have better legal coverage, but not eliminating them.
Now the PP prefers to eliminate them. In the case of banking, it is because the intention of the rate, which taxes 4.8% of the entities’ interests and commissions, is to help mortgaged families and that is not happening. “How much money has reached mortgaged families? Zero,” said the deputy for Seville, who has instead defended the creation of a fund to help the most vulnerable families.
Regarding the energy tax, Juan Bravo has reiterated the PP’s proposal that only the extraordinary profits generated by the company be taxed in an “abnormal” situation and not apply it to 1.2% of the amount of the turnover when it is exceeds 1,000 million euros, which is exactly as it is now proposed.
The ‘popular’ economic deputy secretary has indicated that with this type of measures it can be thought that “good things” are achieved, but in his opinion investment is “lost” in the medium and long term and, as a consequence, employment and activity are lost. economical.
Without leaving the economic news, Juan Bravo has referred to the extension of some anti-crisis measures deployed during the last year. In particular, he has pointed out that the VAT reduction applied to basic foods, pasta and oils is a measure that, in his opinion, has been diluted by the tax on plastic.
“This Government has lowered the VAT but has imposed a tax on plastic that does not exist in the rest of Europe, which practically eats up the reduction in VAT,” he added, to emphasize the need to reduce this tax on meat, fish and other foods “that weigh the most in the shopping basket.”
Another proposal that Bravo likes is, as proposed by the Bank of Spain or AIReF, replacing this VAT reduction with direct aid to the most vulnerable families. Regarding the reduction in transportation prices, the deputy has been inclined to explore “formulas” that make transportation easier for people.
On the other hand, and regarding the Cercle d’Economia’s approval of a possible amnesty for those prosecuted for events related to the process, Bravo recalled that the debate is not talking about other issues that Catalan businessmen have put on top of the table to talk about judicial forgiveness, such as not repeating the events of October 1 or not persecuting businessmen.
“The position of the Popular Party on amnesty, and not of the Popular Party, I believe that of a large majority of Spaniards, is that they have not said it,” he concluded.
