La Oliva’s Popular Party rejects tourist tax amid ‘legal doubts and economic risks for the Town Council’

The Popular Party in La Oliva voted against the initial approval of the fiscal ordinance proposing a tourist tax of €0.56 per overnight stay, after the governing group—made up of Coalición Canaria-Asambleas Municipales (CC-AM), PSOE and Nueva Canarias (NC)—rejected its request to defer consideration of the proposal.

The Popular Party believes that the legal doubts set out in an adverse report by the municipal Treasury, together with the potential economic risks for the Town Council, justified suspending the process until stronger legal guarantees were in place.

The PP’s municipal spokesperson, José Vicente Calero Saavedra, questioned the government’s decision to proceed with a measure whose legal nature had been called into question by the Town Council’s own Treasury department. The report included in the file concludes that stays at tourist accommodation cannot legally be classified as a fee, but as a tax—a form of taxation the council has no power to create.

“We are not against seeking resources to improve public services or addressing the costs generated by tourism. What we stand for is making decisions with all the necessary legal safeguards. When the municipal Treasury itself warns that the Town Council has no power to impose this tax, the responsible thing to do is examine those objections before proceeding,” Calero said.

For the Popular Party, the warning is neither a minor issue nor a mere administrative formality, but a legal objection that should have been examined in depth before the ordinance was put forward for initial approval.

The Mogán precedent and potential costs to municipal funds

The doubts raised by the Treasury come alongside a recent ruling by the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands (TSJC), which declared Mogán’s tourist-tax ordinance null and void. Among other things, the ruling questions the justification for the services underpinning the charge and their relationship to the relevant costs.

Although the PP acknowledges that the ruling does not automatically determine that La Oliva’s proposal is illegal, it believes it is a significant precedent that calls for the utmost caution before the process continues.

“We cannot ignore what has happened in Mogán or act as if it does not matter. That is precisely why we asked for the matter to be deferred and for the ruling to become final, so that we could obtain an up-to-date legal assessment before taking this step,” the PP spokesperson explained.

Calero regretted that the governing group had rejected the proposal and chosen to proceed with the ordinance’s initial approval, despite the warnings that, he said, are already on the municipal file.

The Popular Party also points out that the municipal comptroller’s report warns of the financial consequences the Town Council could face if the ordinance were ultimately annulled. These include the possible repayment of the sums collected, the payment of interest and the administrative costs of managing the tax.

“We are not talking only about whether or not to approve a tax. We are talking about the consequences for the Town Council of a decision that could later be overturned by the courts. If there are legal and financial warnings, the sensible thing is to examine them and resolve the doubts before committing public funds,” Calero said.

The Popular Party insists that its vote against the proposal does not mean it opposes seeking new ways to fund the needs of the municipality. Rather, it questions moving ahead with a tax before the legal objections raised have been clarified.

The PP believes the municipal government should have used the processing stage to strengthen the proposal’s legal safeguards, avoiding the risk that a potential legal challenge could lead to further costs for public funds.

“La Oliva needs resources, but it also needs legal certainty. Raising revenue does not justify everything. Governing means making decisions, but also knowing when to stop, examine warnings from technical staff and act responsibly. That is what we asked for and, unfortunately, the governing group has chosen to press ahead,” José Vicente Calero concluded.