The Catalan Finance Ministry has been restructured in order to develop Catalonia’s own treasury

Barcelona (ACN).- The Catalan Government has created a Treasury Secretariat within its Finance Ministry, which will be in charge of managing revenue, with the objective of “developing” Catalonia’s own tax office, as the Executive’s Spokesperson and Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, told the press after the weekly cabinet meeting. The creation of a treasury of its own would allow the Catalan Government to collect all the taxes generated in Catalonia, as Navarra and the Basque Country have been doing for decades. In fact, this is a long-term desire of a large part of the Catalan society and it was one of the pillars of the specific fiscal agreement proposed by Catalonia to find a better fitting within Spain. It is also one of the electoral promises of the governing Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), which has been the force behind this idea for the last years. Furthermore, it is in line with the strategy of creating state structures and it has been included in the parliamentary stability agreement reached with the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC). For this reason, the creation of such a Secretariat within the Catalan Finance Ministry has been criticised by the pro-Spanish unity parties. At this stage, the decision does not involve increasing costs or hiring more staff, emphasised Homs, as the new division groups existing services. In fact, the Catalan ministries are internally divided within a few Secretariats. The Catalan Finance Ministry will be now divided into four main areas, one of them being the Treasury Secretariat.

On Tuesday, the Catalan Government approved the decree by which its Finance Ministry is restructured. At this time, after the new Cabinet took office two weeks ago, the Government is appointing the main positions and fine-tuning its internal structures. The Ministries of the Catalan Government are internally divided within a few Secretariats for the largest ones. However, the creation of a Treasury Secretariat with the Catalan Finance Ministry “is not only a change of title”, as Francesc Homs, the Government’s Spokesperson and Minister for the Presidency, told the press. The Ministry’s restructuring aims “to strengthen the Catalan Government’s treasury structures and to develop Catalonia’s tax office”. In this way, the Ministry run by Andreu Mas-Colell, which is officially called Ministry for the Economy and Knowledge, will be now divided into four different areas: the Secretariat General for the Economy – the main area of the Ministry, controlling the rest, run by a sort of Deputy Minister and in charge of the Catalan budget –, the Treasury Secretariat, the Catalan Government’s General Intervention and the Universities Secretariat – in charge of managing Catalonia’s universities, since the ministry is in charge of economic, fiscal and research policies.

Grouping existing structures as a first step

Homs explained that “the first step consists of creating this Secretariat” in order to group “existing structures” in order “to prepare” for the creation of a taxation office. Without fixing a specific date, Homs stated that their aim is “to have everything ready” to create Catalonia’s own tax office with an operational capacity by mid-2014. With Tuesday’s decision, the Catalan Government “wants to send a clear message” to explain that “it assumes that Catalonia’s Tax Agency is the body in charge of managing, settling, inspecting and collecting the Catalan Government’s own taxes and the State taxes that have been transferred”. It is also a first step towards having a complete Catalan Treasury in charge of managing the Catalan Government’s revenue policy. At this stage, the decision does not involve increasing costs or hiring more staff, emphasised Homs, as it groups existing structures within the ministry.

Pro-Spanish unity parties criticise the decision

The opposition parties that defend the unity of Spain have criticised the creation of a Treasury Secretariat as they are against the creation of state structures. The Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) accused the Catalan Government of “a lack of rigour”. The PSC believes that it is not coherent to ask for a self-determination referendum and, “before the result, already start the building of state structures”. The People’s Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government, said that the announcement “shows that the Catalan Government wants to create more state structures and increase public spending, instead of implementing austerity measures and reducing administrative structures”. The anti-Catalan nationalism and Spanish nationalist party Ciutadans (C’s) stated that Catalonia’s tax office has already existed since 2007 and he said that creating a Treasury Secretariat will be “a problem” if later the Catalan Executive has to “negotiate with the Spanish Government”.

The opposition parties supporting Catalonia’s self-determination process have not criticised the creation of such a Secretariat but they have focused their criticism on related aspects. The Catalan Green Socialist and Communist Coalition (ICV-EUiA) stated that it is the Catalan Government’s right to restructure its own departments as it considers best. However, ICV-EUiA wishes that the change “would not only refer to the name” but also to the “way of proceeding”, as they would like a greater effort to be made against fiscal fraud. Finally, the radical left-wing and independence party CUP lamented not having been previously informed of this decision. In fact, the CUP asked the CiU and the ERC to share their parliamentary stability agreement with other groups in the aspects related to Catalonia’s self-determination process.