catalan budget

PSC spokesperson says they will not negotiate 'until 2023 agreements are largely fulfilled'

Socialists and En Comú Podem vote with ERC government

Pro-independence opposition Junts to vote against, with unionist Socialists involved in governance for first time in decade

The first budget plan since 2017 is expected to be passed in the parliamentary session

Government gets support of left-wing party for income section, and seeks to gain backing for spending part

Catalunya en Comú Podem puts forward two bills, while Socialists urge president Torra to call election if he lacks parliamentary support for spending plan

Cracks in political alliance that made Sánchez president could unleash major domino effect

Left-wing party demands to see executive's plans for social spending before continuing negotiations

Catalan police could not access to the reserved funds used to fight against terrorism and organized crime, says report

Madrid argues that the measures don't only affect Catalonia, while Catalan administration stresses that Spain’s arguments “make no sense”

Madrid will extend the Catalan budget in the council of ministers that will be held today

Despite the fact that all the Autonomous Community governments that are not run by the People's Party (PP) requested the Spanish Executive  – run by the PP – to allow them a greater deficit in 2016 and that Spain's independent fiscal authority Airef also recommended granting regional governments greater deficit targets for next year, the Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, has rejected doing so. In 2016, the Autonomous Communities will have to close their budgets with less than a 0.3% deficit, "an absurd" and "unrealistic" figure according to the Catalan Finance Minister, Andreu Mas-Colell, who was recently awarded an honorary PhD in Economics by the University of Chicago. The Catalan Government asked for a 0.88% deficit target for 2016. Besides this, next year the Catalan Executive will receive €1.2 billion that should have already been transferred by the Spanish Executive but was not, due to Montoro's tax revenue miscalculations. In addition to this, since economic activity is growing, the Spanish Government will increase the Catalan Executive's funds by €700 million each year from 2016 onwards.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, presented on Monday the model for Catalonia's own Treasury, which will be developed should "the political conditions" be there, he stated. "This is the most serious attempt to build our own Treasury in the last 300 years", stressed Mas. "After two years of work, we are ready" to launch and Catalans should not waste "this great opportunity", he stressed. "Without our own Treasury, there is no real self-government", the Catalan President stated. The system would include Catalonia's own Tax Agency and  is inspired by the taxation authorities in countries such as Sweden, Denmark and Australia, which prioritise cooperation with taxpayers over controlling them. In these models, efforts are concentrated on severely persecuting tax evaders and underground economy, while the vast majority of tax-payers who deal correctly with their fiscal obligations receive assistance and have unlimited access to their fiscal data.