The Government and its partners remain obsessed with attacking large companies, using legal uncertainty and regulation. The consequences are obvious. Investment in Spain has been stagnant since 2019 and Foreign investment has plummeted since 2018.
Everything comes from one Manichean and sectarian vision that comes from thinking that a company that earns a lot is bad and, above all, that, if you earn a lot because you invest much more, it must be penalized. Attack big companies is attacking progress and endangering the welfare system that they pretend to protect. We have fewer and fewer large companies, and they are only met with regulatory and fiscal disregard.
The fiscal absurdity perpetrated by the Government is of such magnitude that we are not aware of the damage it does to the country. Spain loses opportunities and investments move to places where there is legal certainty and taxation is attractive.
The imposition demanded by the communist partners of the PSOE is an example of endangering what they pretend to protect. It puts 30 billion in investments and thousands of jobs at risk. What they want collect, which will not reach 1,000 million of euros, is less than four times what the Government spends on “economic matters”, and will also generate a loss of revenue in the medium term greater than what they plunder now. Negative effect, in addition to scaring other sectors that perceive this legal and fiscal insecurity.
The same thing happens with banking. Weakens the national bank, It makes services more expensive and on top of that the tax collection effect is negative. in the medium term. Fiscal myopia. It is not only the voracity of tax collection and sectarianism, the randomness and insecurity, which are already very negative in themselves. It is regulatory myopia.
For the transport and distribution sector, the CNMC’s financial remuneration rate (TRF) calculation methodology seeks to compensate the cost of capital of a prudently managed company that carries out a regulated activity. Well, with the CNMC calculation methodology, the reference rate for the 2026-2031 period would be around 4.5%, a figure well below the current and future real cost of capital, even using the most benign estimates. , and will put essential investments at risk for the security of supply and strengthening of networks.
The current rates in neighboring countries are far from the aforementioned value. For example, Italy or Norway have rates of 8.9% and 8.2% respectively. The United Kingdom has a rate of 7.5%. With this there is a risk of flight of investments.
In fact, the leak is obvious if we look at how much is being invested in other countries in relation to the operating profit before depreciation and amortization of each one. This relationship is almost four times higher in France than in Spain, three times higher in the case of Germanyand 1.6 times that of Italy and the United Kingdom.
It is necessary to adapt the calculation for the new period taking the 10-year bond of 2023 as a risk-free rate reference, considering the current trend leverage, applying a risk premium equivalent to that of other regulated activities and adding a risk premium to the cost of debt (as in the telecommunications sector) and transaction costs.
The difference is not small. With all this, a rate close to 8% would be obtained.
The problem is that the Spanish regulator considers that investments are donations, that the cost of debt is almost equivalent to the cost of capital, something very typical of people who do not invest, and that companies already earn too much.
It is the same problem that the government has with taxation. This example is evidence of how governments and regulators can facilitate, as is done in other countries, and where companies are perceived as enemies. What happens is that, when companies are considered enemies, those who are harmed are the citizens. less investment, worse employment and worse collection in the medium term. We must recover our sanity and stop attacking those who create wealth, invest and create jobs under the sectarian vision that they do everything for evil.
He Businessman is not an enemy, he is a benefactor. Companies and their investments are our future. I hope that regulatory and fiscal sanity returns and that we start to really think about the economy, because what endangers the Welfare State is the current model of unproductive spending, debt and plunder.
It is our obligation as disseminators to defend those who invest and risk in our country.
Considering that everyone is evil if they are big companies is sectarianism, it is a lie and it is deeply anti-progress.