Transport Minister Raquel Sánchez this Monday presented the Catalan folder of the 2023 general budget, which is expected to allocate 2,980 million euros to Catalonia, despite the tight execution that is repeated year after year in the community. Sánchez has weathered the questions regarding this investment deficit, assuring that in the first half of this year Catalonia will be the area where most investments have been made, with 40% more resources than in the same period last year, although that is the case itself repeatedly refused to offer the degree of enforcement at the end of this period.
Sánchez has avoided offering further data on the increase in real investment in Catalonia, which includes part of the asset liability owed by the State to Abertis for the withdrawal of the AP-7 concession, which amounts to almost 1,070 million euros. The minister has ensured that Catalonia will be the greatest beneficiary of the investments, taking into account this compensation and isolating it from actual execution. In the first half of 2021, the general intervention of the state administration assured that state investments in Catalonia amounted to 275 million.
The ministry defends that the item included in the 2023 budgets reflects the commitment of the current executive, since they are comparable to the weight of Catalan GDP (mandate included in the statute for the first seven years of its validity) and represent an increase of 123% compared to the average invested at the time of Mariano Rajoy’s popular government. In fact, he has blamed the paralysis of those years of lowly executions in Catalonia.
“We’re working on reversing the execution numbers,” Sánchez said, citing the fact that the average investment in Catalonia over the past four years has been barely 53% of the total budget, compared to the Spanish average of 72%, with a maximum of 113% in Madrid (more is invested than originally indicated in the households). The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce expects Adif, the public manager of the railway network, to invest barely one euro in five planned this year. Between January and June this year, Sánchez advertised works with a total value of 850 million euros.
According to accounts for next year, the ministry will allocate 1,012 million euros to Renfe’s Rodalies service and a total of 1,665 million euros to the railways.
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