Jorge Azcón affirms that what was raised by the Executive in the CNAL "is unassumable" and criticizes the "disloyalty with which they have acted with local entities in relation to the payment of VAT"
The spokesman of the Popular Group in the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP), Jorge Azcón, has announced, after the meeting of the National Commission of Local Administration (CNAL), that the mayors of the PP will go to court to claim VAT that the Government of Sanchez owes them. This decision comes after the refusal of the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, to pay the 752 million euros that the Executive owes to municipalities and councils for this concept.
In this regard, it has highlighted that the Executive has recognized that the solution to pay the VAT due had to have been taken in 2019, so Azcón has denounced that if the Government knew this data, it has acted with absolute disloyalty towards the municipalities . At the same time, he has indicated that the solution proposed by the Minister of Finance is "totally unacceptable" so the only possible way is to "claim what is owed to us, it is the judicial route."
Azcón has emphasized that Minister Montero is shielded that “the VAT of 2017 is an inherited matter to not pay it”. "The Government wants the councils to settle for not charging VAT, they want to content us with measures that we cannot consent to, so they force us to go to court to defend our rights."
Likewise, the mayor of Zaragoza has affirmed that “the CNAL is the reliable proof that the town halls are not a priority for the Government of Pedro Sánchez”. This council of mayors has been, according to Azcón, "a real tease, since not a single measure has been addressed that can improve municipal funding and allow us to improve the public services of our town halls."
Local entities, he says, “we are the most compliant administration of all, the one that is most committed to the finances of Spain, thanks to which the country meets the deficit and debt objectives and, nevertheless, is the one that worse treatment receives from the Sanchez Executive. ” At this point, the spokesman of the PP at the FEMP, has assured “that the mayors of the PP are going to be belligerent in claiming VAT, because it is fair, not a gift. The amount owed to us belongs to our neighbors. ”
For Azcón, “after the impulse that the Government of Mariano Rajoy gave to the municipal demands, Sánchez and his Government have reduced the town halls and councils to be a second-class administration. Today we have verified in the CNAL that we are not a priority for the ministers of Finance and Territorial Policy and Public Function, María Jesús Montero and Carolina Darias, respectively ”.
The mayor of Zaragoza, has stressed that "the CNAL has convened by the Government to solve their own problems, not those of local entities", something that is "unfortunate" and shows, once again, that "the Executive of Sanchez is very bad news for the city councils of Spain and, in addition, for the Spaniards who inhabit them ”.
