Grounds for going to Constitutional Court

Balearic hoteliers are continuing their fight against the government's proposed tourist tax and they have just released details of a legal report commission by the Majorcan Hoteliers Federation which shows that there are grounds for going to the Constitutional Court. A spokesman said that the tax infringed the Constitution because it discriminated tourists, some of whom paid and others don't. He was referring to the Spanish pensioners who take advantage of cheap holidays offered by the ministry of social welfare, who have been exempted from the tax. But tourism minister Celestí Alomar said that if this was the hoteliers' only problem, then penioners would have to pay and that would be all they (the hoteliers) would achieve. Parliament is expected to approve the tax over the next few months, and it can be applied six months after approval, although it now seems that it will not be charged until January 2002. The hoteliers are opposed to the tax because they say it is arbitrary and unjust as it affects only one part of the sector. Thirty per cent of tourists who stay in flats and holiday homes will be exempt, they claim.