Mazón Urges Government for Urgent Extraordinary FLA to Pay Generalitat's Suppliers

President of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, has urgently called on the Spanish Government for the extraordinary Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) to ensure payments to the regional administration's suppliers amidst the "practically unsustainable" state of the public accounts.

Mazón met with representatives of business entities supplying the Generalitat to inform them about the Consell's treasury situation on the same day that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez met with the victims of the storm.

The head of the Consell pointed out that public accounts are "at the limit": as of March 31, there are 1.916.7 million in the Generalitat's account, of which 61% (1.175 million) is commercial debt divided into: 79% for health; 8% for social services; and 5% for education. Additionally, invoices recorded but unpaid due to lack of treasury amount to 280.7 million euros. In total, 1.455 billion euros.

In total, the Generalitat's debt reaches 60.632 billion euros. The Valencian Community is the most indebted region under the common Spanish regime, as stated by the president himself. The Consell has reduced the deficit by 1.3 billion euros in almost two years.

He argued that this situation "is not due to a spending problem, but to lower revenues due to underfunding" accumulated since the last reform of the distribution system, approved by the socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in 2009.

As long as there is no change in this system, the Valencian Community has a structural deficit that the Botànic government estimated at 1.6 billion euros annually. Therefore, it is necessary to articulate other forms of financing for a region that, aside from regular and usual expenses, must face the reconstruction process after the October 29 storm.

Hence, Mazón demands the 2.5 billion euros of the Extraordinary FLA to "pay essential public services," as the Valencian Community cannot "generate credit, which in turn, causes delays in processing payments" to the Generalitat's suppliers.

The president criticized the central government's "silence" on the approval of the extraordinary FLA, as well as the "lack of response" from the Spanish Government to other demands of the Valencian Community: the update of the advance payments of the regional financing system, "which means not receiving 800 million so far this year"; the leveling fund, endowed with 1.782 billion euros until regional financing is achieved, or the non-repayable aid to the Generalitat to face reconstruction.