Politics

Budget to have 14% lower property sales tax revenue

Rosario Sánchez, has already stated that there will be a need for "prudence" with regard to government spending. | miquel a. cañellas

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma12/10/2019 12:09

The Balearic government will approve 2020's budget by the end of this month; the budget will then enter its parliamentary phase for final legislative approval in December.

Initial approval has been given to a spending ceiling of 4,384 million euros, though the total budget will be almost 6,000 million, which will represent an enormous increase; 2019's was just over 5,000 million. The reason for this leap is provision for paying off 1,500 million euros debt, much of which will be paid by acquiring new debt.

The finance minister, Rosario Sánchez, has already stated that there will be a need for "prudence" with regard to government spending. Prudence also has to be exerted in respect of anticipated revenues. One line of government income is property sales tax. The budget is understood to forecast a 14% decrease in 2020. This 14% equates to 98.3 million euros.

The largest single source of revenue comes from the regional financing system. Sánchez envisages this being 2,809 million euros. This would represent a 2.4% increase over this year's distribution, but it is dependent upon a new government in Madrid and its budget for 2020. There have been issues this year with receipt of funds from the financing system because Madrid has been unable to approve a budget.