The Parliament of the Balearic Islands today approved a non-legislative proposal (NLP) to push through the State to impose a tax on large multinationals that have made big business out of the Covid-19 pandemic. The proposal is from Més per Mallorca and has been amended by the PSOE. The NLP talks about applying this tax to pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines, mask manufacturers and even multinational messaging and video and film platforms. All of them have seen their business increase exponentially during the pandemic which has helped create a huge demand for their products.
Specifically, the approved proposal states in its first point: “The Parliament of the Balearic Islands urges the Spanish Government to form a working group for the creation of a tax figure on profits derived from the outbreak of the pandemic obtained by multinational companies”. The PSOE has presented an amendment to include “tax progressivity, so that those who earn more pay more, and to increase the fiscal and financial autonomy of the autonomous communities”. The spokesman for Més, Miquel Ensenyat, points out in his proposal that “ we must not forget that many of these large companies, especially pharmaceuticals, signed huge contracts with public administrations” making a great deal of money.
Més also asked the Ministry of Economy to draw up a list of the sectors that have seen an “evident” increase in their profits from public contracts for materials to combat the effects of covid-19 including medicine and sanitary material. However, according to the socialist deputy Jordi MarÃ, “we believe that public contracts should not be reviewed, since the administrations have their own control mechanisms”.