Spain’s tax office still retains part of Catalonia’s funding

Barcelona (CNA).- Catalonia has finally received its share of the Spanish Liquidity Point (FLA) but not the whole amount. The Spanish Finance Ministry transferred this morning 3 billion euros from the 3.034 billion assigned for this year, but the other 34 million is still being retained due to the Ministry’s “invoices checking” procedure. The payment of this 3 billion euros from the FLA comes after the controversial "specific and additional controls" that Spain's executive has imposed on Catalonia to guarantee "transparency" and ensure that “the FLA won’t fund pro-independence whims”, in the words of Spanish Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro. Current Catalan Finance Minister Andreu Mas-Colell accused Spain's executive of trying to take political advantage of an "ordinary procedure between administrations" and urged the Spanish government to pay before the end of the year.  

The rest of the Autonomous Communities in Spain have also suffered a similar delay this Wednesday and still have some money pending to be transferred. The Spanish Finance Ministry has paid 7.043 billion of the overall 7.889 assigned to the regions.

Catalonia is the region which receives the highest amount from the FLA, followed by Valencia, which received 1.536 billion euros. Madrid is the third community in terms of amount received from the FLA (561 million euros). According to the Ministry, Catalonia received 1.813 billion during 2015 (up to November) and all the regions put together received more than 8 billion euros.

The current Catalan Finance Minister clarified that "social expenses come first" in the Government's payment criteria and noted that the last FLA remittance went entirely toward paying the pharmacist suppliers. "All our payments are legal and destined for social expenses, but if the FLA doesn't arrive, somebody will be left out" he warned.