These announcements have been made at the Congress of Deputies, where the debate on the state of the nation will be held, today and tomorrow; a debate the President of the Government has opened with this speech.
He has analysed the strengths and weaknesses of our economic and production system and he has stressed the solutions that must be implemented in order to make up for the latter, making a special emphasis on the actions of the Government against the crisis.
According to the President, this is intended to attain a double goal: stopping employment loss and preparing for recovery by implementing a new growth model.
Thus, he has announced the 5% reduction of the Corporate Tax during three years, in order to back up employment maintenance in small and medium-sized enterprises. This reduction will be applied to companies with less than 25 workers, whose sales volume is inferior to 5 million Euros and whose average employment rates by 31 December 2009 are the same or better than the 2008 average. This measure will also be applied to those that meet this requirement in 2010.
This formula will also have effects upon those self-employed workers who maintain the jobs of their employees.
The second announcement of the President affects housing-related deductions in the Income Tax, which will be enforced by 1 January 2011.
Applicants will have the possibility to apply for admission in the current regime for the next 19 months, but from them on, it will only apply for incomes under 17,000 yearly Euros, in whose case, the current deduction rates will be maintained, the limit being set in 9,015 Euros, deductible base.
For those incomes which surpass 17,000 Euros, the deduction will be linearly reduced and it will not be applied in the case of those incomes beyond 24,000 Euros per year.
Rental promotion is also contemplated and it will be carried out through the implementation of fiscal benefits for dwelling owners. The deduction concerning the rental revenues will increase up to 60% and if the tenant is under 30, it might reach 100%.
This, according to the President, is the previous measure for the normalisation of this sector and for the liberalisation of the empty housing market, for unsold properties and for those properties that are not intended to let.
Aids for vehicle purchase
In order to keep supporting the vehicle sector, the President announced that the Government, in collaboration with the Autonomous Regions and the Vehicle Sector, will grant buyers 2,000 Euros – direct aids-, pear each new vehicle they purchase, from next 1 June onwards.
The State will contribute with 500 Euros, the Autonomous Regions with 500 and the Vehicle Sector with 1,000 Euros, up to 2,000 Euros.
Besides, a new VIVE Plan will be implemented in order to buy new busses, and thus, the substitution of buses with more than 10 years and the purchase of new buses meeting certain efficiency requisites will be financed. This will buttress the purchase of up to 2,000 new buses.
A new, non taxable “transport voucher” will be created.
Sustainable economy
In order to support the new growth model, the Government will create a Fund for Sustainable Economy, which will be managed by the ICO and which will involve the investment of nearly 20,000 million Euros, including both public and private funds, between 2009 and 2010.
Furthermore, the State Budget for 2010 will serve to create a new Local Investment Fund for environmental sustainability projects, technological projects and projects of attention to dependent persons, which will be endowed with 5,000 million Euros.
This new growth model will be backed up by a law, and, thus, a Bill Draft on Sustainable Economy will be sent to Parliament.
Education
Education is one of the most important actions for the President from the point of view of the development of a new growth model.
He explained that the Minister of Education is already working on a great pact for the improvement of the operation and the results of our educational system.
The priorities in this pact are: guaranteeing the observance of the Plan for the Reduction of the Early Drop-out Rates; guaranteeing the development of the so-called Educa3 Plan, so that by 2012 all children between 0 and 3 may hay a seat at a primary education centre; and concluding a reform of the Professional Training System.
He has also announced two new initiatives thanks to which next year all classrooms will be provided with digital blackboards, wireless internet connection and a laptop for each student.
Thus, more than 420,000 primary school students at the fifth grade in public and partially financed private schools will have a personal computer. The Government intends to extend this measure to all students up the last grade of secondary teaching.
The second initiative is intended to favour unemployed university degree holders who are liable to receive a subsidy so that they may enter official master study programmes and keep on studying and training during this economic crisis.
Thus, 70 million Euros will be set aside for Public Universities to promote free registration to unemployed degree holders between 25 and 40.
Cutting down on public expenditure
The President announced that public expenditure will be cut down once more, and this measure will be endorsed during the next Council of Ministers.
He said that the State Budgets for 2009 involved a considerable decrease of the expenditure growth rates by implementing control measures concerning public employment, by reducing current expenditure and by freezing the salaries of senior officers.
He said that last February the Government had passed an additional reduction amounting to 1,500 million Euros and now they will implement a reduction amounting to one thousand million Euros.
Thus, 2,500 million Euros have been cut down in one year, the greatest effort to keep up budget austerity in our democracy, according to him.
Further issues
The President referred to the Spanish EU Presidency, during the first semester of 2010. He said that it would focus on two transversal axes: innovation and equality, and he stressed his intention to favour "the widest political consensus" in order to prepare and develop it.
He also mentioned the reform of Justice because it was "a crucial, urgent goal".
According to him, it is necessary to increase the capacity of our judicial system and to reduce its work volume by exempting it from those tasks that can be carried out through other means.
He announced that over the next few months, the Government will present the Parliament with a new Law on the Code of Criminal Procedure, the new regulations concerning the competences of our judicial organisms, and the new judicial demarcation and jurisdiction.
As to the regional financing model, he announced that the Government will hold a meeting with the Council for Fiscal and Financial Policies before next 15 July.
Finally, he announced the improvement of the efficiency and guarantees of citizens’ rights through the implementation of several projects that the Government will send to Parliament over the next few months, namely, the reform of the regulations concerning the voluntary interruption of pregnancy; the integral law on equal treatment; the new legal frame concerning religious freedom and the completion of the new public TV model.
Related information
- Eleven measures for a new sustainable economic growth model
- The Government will eliminate mortgage deduction in the case of the highest incomes
- The Government has put forward a Plan contemplating Direct Aids of up to 2,000 Euros to purchase a vehicle
Resume of the Intervention of the President of the Government.doc
