Madrid (EFE).- The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced this Thursday a new package of measures to combat the energy crisis that will involve the mobilization of some 3,000 million euros, with which he seeks to protect 40% homes .
As Sánchez explained during his appearance at his own request in the Congress of Deputies, the new measures will be approved in the Council of Ministers next Tuesday, which include, among other things, aid for families with a centralized natural gas boiler .
Thus, a new regulated tariff (TUR) has been created for local authorities with this type of boiler with the aim of limiting the quarterly increase in prices until the end of 2023, as is now the case with the existing regulated tariffs. .
The measure will allow 1.7 million households to reduce their bill to more than half of what they would pay under current market conditions, according to government estimates.
A reinforcement of the electrical social link is also proposed. For the 1.3 million households that already benefit from it, the discount applied is increased to 65% and 80%, respectively, for beneficiaries considered vulnerable and very vulnerable, and the amount of energy eligible for a discount is increased by 15%.
On a temporary basis, a new category of consumers benefiting from a 40% reduction on their bills is established for working low-income households, which will benefit an additional 1.5 million families.
Similarly, the conditions of the thermal social bonus are improved, so that in 2022 and 2023 the budget of vulnerable households is doubled.
Thus, the average aid will be doubled to 375 euros per household and the minimum aid will be increased to 40 euros.
“Spain is today, thanks to the efforts of the government, the most credible European country in the proposals that allow to cushion the effects of the energy crisis of (Vladimir) Putin”, defended Sánchez.
Sánchez says even the IMF approves of new government taxes
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, also said that the temporary taxes adopted in Spain “on large energy companies, large financial companies and large fortunes” are measures that are increasingly being adopted by more countries and even supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“The IMF, the OECD, the European Central Bank and the European Commission itself agree on the path to tax justice. We will have to ask ourselves who is going in the opposite direction or who is wavering, ”said the president, looking at the popular bench during his appearance in Congress.
“Only the United Kingdom broke with this path with disastrous consequences,” added Sánchez, who pointed out that even the IMF yesterday supported the introduction of “solidarity taxes” on the very wealthy and the big companies in times of crisis like the one triggered by the pandemic or, more recently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to the president, those who advocate lower taxes, all they want is to “dismantle the welfare state with neoliberal proposals” and defend the top 0.2% of the population.
Sánchez claims that free transport cushions users by half on inflation
Pedro Sánchez also defended the free Renfe transport tickets, and declared that this 100% discount makes it possible to cushion “nearly half of the impact of inflation in the pocket” of a frequent user with a payroll of 1,500 euros per month.
As he explained, more than one and a half million free subscriptions for Cercanías, Rodalies and Media Distancia have already been issued, and he does not rule out reaching two million by the end of the year. year.
In environmental terms, free public transport allows an overall saving of 118 million liters of fuel and some 360,000 tonnes less carbon dioxide (CO2) “in the air we breathe”, he underlined.
According to government estimates, consumers have saved 35,000 million since June 2021 with measures such as the tax reduction or the Iberian mechanism to cap the price of gas for electricity generation.
Web editor: Nuria Santesteban