CATALONIA --- Catalan News Agency - Politics

Catalan News Agency - Politics

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  “An independent Catalonia should not pay” for Spain’s “odious debts”, says employer association

  
  
  
  
  

  The President of the employer’s association Cercle Català de Negocis
  (CCN), Albert Pont, stated that part of the Spanish Government’s debt
  is “odious” and therefore Catalonia cannot recognise this “illegitimate
  debt”. However, Pont underlined the “willingness” to pay for the
  proportionate share of the rest of the debt, which should be calculated
  “item by item”. In an exclusive interview with the CNA, he denounced a
  public debt generated “for the benefit of no more than a few companies”
  that “provide works, services and infrastructures” for the Spanish
  Government. “If Spain does not recognise the independence of Catalonia,
  Spain should assume its debt completely and the Catalan Government its
  own debt”, he warned. In addition, Pont denounced the fact that the
  Spanish Executive is taking away “between €16 billion and €18 billion”
  from Catalonia each year, a fiscal deficit amounting to “around 9%” of
  the Catalan GDP. “The IMF already established that fiscal deficits
  exceeding 4% of the GDP of a territory amounted to colonial relations”,
  he highlighted. Besides, he explained that “the average custom duty is
  between 1.4% and 1.5%”. However, Pont ruled out this possibility since a
  “political solution” will be reached to keep Catalonia within the EU.