During yesterday's parliamentary session, Negueruela addressed the political row that has erupted because of this decision between his party, PSOE, and government partners Més. He accepted that there had been mistakes and failures in coordination and communication. However, he explained that there was an agreement by the cabinet to help businesses with liquidity problems because of an "exceptional situation". The tourist tax measure and others, he added, were "not government measures" but ones that were "the fruit of social dialogue" with various bodies. The amount of tourist tax revenue for hoteliers will be "less than three million euros".
Més, who want the decision to be reconsidered, say that there are alternative means of helping businesses, such as the contingency fund which is itemised in the annual budget. This could be used to cover liquidity issues without there being a link to the tourist tax.
The party continues to insist that its two ministers did not support the tourist tax measure, but government vice-president, Juan Pedro Yllanes of Podemos, has once more stated that there had been no opposition, either from Podemos or Més. In his view, the use of tax revenue for hoteliers "does not pervert its purpose as it (the tourist tax) was designed to mitigate the effects of tourism".
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For Juan P. Yllanes to say that the TT "does not pervert its purpose as it (the tourist tax) was designed to mitigate the effects of tourism". Makes absolutely no sense! In effect it's being used to mitigate against the poor management of TC and business losses incurred. Help is available from elsewhere but linking the TT as a type of bail-out ( not quite that but the tabloids would see it like that) for the greedy hoteliers ( as perceived by many) totally discredits the tax. It looks bad, it smells bad, it is a bad decision.