Tackling Fraud in Spain 'Could Save More than the Austerity Plan'

The Union for Technicians working in the Ministry of Tax and Haciendas has state how Controlling fraud in Spain would save the Government money in excess of that hoped to be saved in the austerity plan, announced last week.

The austerity plan will pensions next year and impose a 5% cut in civil servants wages this year, should save 15 billion € over two years, however, reducing the ‘black economy’ from the 23% which is estimated currently to 13% would net over 38.5 billion a year - more than double the savings proposed by the austerity plan.

These statistics came from the Union of Technicians in the Ministry for Tax and Hacienda (GESTHA), although the figures are merely preliminary estimations. The General Secretary for GESTA has called for an official study to be carried out so that the figures can be corroborated across several Government departments. Understanding exactly how fraud takes place makes controlling it possible, he said, also calling for targets to be set by parliament - as with other EU countries. In Spain it is the responsibility of the Agencia Tributaria tax agency to set its own anti-fraud targets. This year they want a 3% improvement on last year when they recovered 8.119 billion.