Tourism minister Iago Negueruela on Tuesday. | Teresa Ayuga

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The Balearic government has ruled out there being a suspension of the tourist tax. Tourism minister Iago Negueruela told parliament on Tuesday that there will be an adjustment but that this will be to how the tax is assessed.

Hoteliers (and certain others) make two payments of the tax to the government. The first of these is in October, the amounts being based on the previous year; they are therefore estimates. The second payment, at the end of January, is a settlement for the real amounts of tax revenue that have been collected.

The October payments this year would clearly bear no relation to the actual situation. Therefore, the finance ministry is currently working on making an adjustment to the system, Negueruela explaining that the "modules", as would have been, "are not going to be paid". The law for the sustainable tourism tax, he noted, allows the possibility of modification "if exceptional circumstances occur which seriously affect the sector".