Most communities choose to distribute the fund of 13,500 million by adjusted population

The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, this Tuesday in the Senate Sergio R Moreno / GTRES

Most of the communities have chosen that the extraordinary transfer of 13,486 million euros that the Ministry of Finance will inject them this year be distributed by adjusted population.

The department headed by María Jesús Montero had sent a letter last week to the regional councils in which it asked them to choose between two formulas to allocate the fund: the relative weight of GDP or the relative participation of each autonomy in the adjusted population, a variable that takes into account factors such as the age of the population or the area.

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• The Treasury consults the autonomies on the distribution of the extraordinary transfer of 13,486 million

This Tuesday was the last day for the autonomous communities to communicate their preference to the ministry.

As EL PAÍS has learned, Andalusia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Canary Islands, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Galicia, the Region of Murcia and the Valencian Community have chosen that the distribution be made according to the adjusted population;

Six other communities ―Aragón, Baleares, Cataluña, Comunidad de Madrid, Navarra and La Rioja― asked to use the GDP criterion.

“We are aware that some communities may believe that alternative criteria to those indicated are more adequate;

however, we have considered that the election focuses on the two statements, "said the letter sent last week by the Treasury.

The letter added that the intention of the Government is to achieve the "greatest possible consensus", even knowing "the difficulty involved in finding a distribution formula that responds unanimously to the positions of the recipients of the fund."

Some communities, despite having opted for one of the two options offered by the ministry, have requested a meeting to discuss the distribution criteria.

They have also asked to introduce other factors to determine the allocation.

Deficit

This transfer corresponds to half of the regional deficit forecast for this year and had been announced by Montero on October 5 during the celebration of the last Fiscal and Financial Policy Council, the meeting in which those responsible for regional finances debate with the ministry the questions relative to the autonomic financing.

The minister then explained that the communities would not have a mandatory deficit target for 2021, as fiscal rules remain suspended.

Instead, it set a reference rate for the year, 2.2% of GDP, and promised that the State would assume half of this gap, 1.1%, equivalent to 13,486 million euros.

In the distribution of previous transfers launched to face the pandemic, the difference in position of the regional governments was already evident and there were squabbles with the ministry.

The $ 16 billion covid fund that was approved last year was a case in point.

The Treasury established that it be assigned based on different sections weighted according to factors such as population and the impact of the pandemic, and caused controversy of a different nature in the communities.

Some complained that the sanitary criteria did not weigh enough, others claimed that the population should count more in the distribution.

The communities governed by the PP also complained about the criteria for the distribution of the European fund React EU and the allocation of the package of direct aid to companies of 7,000 million announced in March.