Political split starts to show over tourist tax

A split in the Balearic coalition government started to show yesterday over the tourist tax, which in turn was heavily criticised by one of the world's leading hoteliers, the chairman of the Majorcan Sol Meliá hotel chain Gabriel Escarrer. There appears to be serious doubts over the legality of a tourist tax and the President of the Insular Council of Majorca and leader of the Majorca Unionist party, Maria Antonia Munar, whose party's seats in the Balearic parliament are the key to government, urged Chief Minister Francesc Antich ensure that the tourist tax is legal “as you can not afford the luxury of introducing a tax and then being forced to back track.” Munar also reminded the government that her party would prefer to see more of the Balearics' money being returned by central government in order to cover the escalating costs of protecting and managing the Balearics. “Every year some 200'000 million pesetas go to Madrid and it never returns, What the Balearic government needs to do is sit down for some serious talks with Madrid and reach a deal so that the VAT generated by the tourist industry is reinvested in our island,” Munar said. The President of the Insular Council of Majorca also sees that a VAT return from Madrid would be far more financially beneficial that the tourist tax as the amount of money would be as much as four times that generated by a tourist tax.