Spain's finance minister vows to resubmit regional funding model if left wins election

Spain's Finance Minister Arcadi España promised Friday that if the left-wing coalition stays in power after the general election on November 29, the government will resubmit its new financing model for autonomous communities, including Catalonia.

After PM Pedro Sánchez dissolved parliament to call the elections early, the financial plan lapsed.

Speaking at a breakfast briefing in Valencia, España said it is the left's preferred model and would be put forward "during the first months" of next year if voters return Pedro Sánchez as prime minister. 

"I believe that one of the urgent tasks for the next government, which I trust will also be a progressive one, will be to bring this financing model to Congress, put it to a vote and ensure its passage," he said.

The new model grew out of a deal between the Socialists and the Catalan pro-independence party ERC, which backed Salvador Illa's bid for Catalan president. 

The government and ERC presented it in January. The new model will allow autonomous communities to increase the proportion of taxes they collect. The regional proportion of personal income tax collected will increase from 50% to 55%, and that of VAT from 50% to 56.5%.

It would bring about €21 billion more to all territories combined, including about €4.7 billion to Catalonia.

After Sánchez announced the snap election the model's processing came to an abrupt halt. 

The model had already been endorsed by the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, the body where the central government and the autonomous communities discuss funding, but it still awaited processing in Congress, where it lacked the votes to pass.

The PP, which governs several autonomous communities, opposed it. Junts, whose votes are key in Congress, said the deal did not go far enough and called for an economic agreement for Catalonia like those of the Basque Country and Navarre, which collect their own taxes under separate arrangements.