• Internet: Everyone seeks 90,000 million in GAFA taxes
  • International, France and the US, awaiting the OECD verdict

Nadia Calviño has integrated Digital Transformation in her position as head of Economy. The addition in the job title has a certain false character, since its portfolio already had a good part of these attributions through a Secretary of State for Digital Advance, but it does send a message of understanding to a sector especially susceptible to the setting in progress of the so-called Google rate .

The piping granted by Pedro Sánchez to the office of Calviño will not prevent it from sharing its economic attributions with other ministers, from María Jesús Montero, at the head of the Treasury and any tax directed at the technology giants , to the international trade expert Arancha González Laya, head of Foreign Affairs and predictable reference in the tug of war tariffs; passing through Yolanda Díaz, in Labor and Social Economy, and José Luis Escrivá, in charge of Social Security.

In any case, the digital transformation has achieved the category of vice presidency, in response to one of the demands of the online business environment. In fact, last September, the technology firm Ametic requested it as publicly from Sanchez, who endorsed the request expressed by the association: "I will take that proposal of Government seriously. With some nuance, but something similar will be ".

"Sanchez picked up the glove and Calviño is a very competent person," said Pedro Mier, president of Ametic, in conversation with EL MUNDO. "The message is very good, but the real priorities will not be clarified until there are budgets, " he adds. In truth, Spain only emulates the last adjustments of Brussels, where Margrethe Vestager has just assumed a vice-presidency with powers over the digital market.

The tax facing France and the US

If that recognition within a vice-presidency appears on the face, the imposition of a digital tax appears on the cross, at least from the generalized point of view between associations and companies in the digital field, contrary to Spain applying a Google fee unilaterally to the American technological colossi that, they understand, will end up having an impact on the entire business ecosystem and will also reach consumers. The progress of the Government program in coalition of PSOE and United We collects the commitment to approve "a tax on certain digital services in order to tax those operations of the digital economy that currently do not pay taxes, in line with the recommendations of the European Union ".

Currently, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is looking for a fiscal formula that allows addressing the matter internationally. The pioneer activation by the Government of Emmanuel Macron in France has earned him a frontal clash with Donald Trump, his counterpart in the US, from where he is threatened with the imposition of tariffs on Gallic products as emblematic as wine or cheese. Both countries expect the OECD to give a guideline in the next few days. For their part, the GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) are pushing so that new tax charges are not imposed on them in all countries where they are accessible, as explained by one of these companies to this newspaper, so It goes without saying that they will try to avoid any unilateral measure of a nation.

Industry and Science under one umbrella

Specifically, from Ametic a vice-presidency of Reindustrialization, Innovation and Digitalization had been requested. But, as Sánchez has organized the government, reindustrialization is within the scope of the Ministry of Maroto Reyes and that of innovation in that of Pedro Duque. Both repeat in the Socialist Executive, but from now on they will undergo effective coordination by Calviño. Fields such as start-ups , pending a new law , fall on the side of the Industry area, while the development of artificial intelligence, also waiting for a national strategy , is part of the Science department. The digital nature of the Vice Presidency of Calviño should be decisive in clarifying future responsibility for these matters. In addition, on the digitalization of administrations, Carolina Darias, the new Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Function, would have much to say.

DigitalES, another of the fundamental associations of the sector, has been claiming the importance of bringing to the forefront "the digital transformation", although it had not asked for a specific vice-presidency. "The digital transformation will be one of the axes of the new government's policy," Calviño said in July at the DigitalES Summit forum.

Raising these aspects to the category of a vice-presidency is a declaration of intent, but the Secretary of State for Digital Advance led by Francisco Polo was already working on it, and also depended on Calviño. Sources in this newspaper state that Sánchez contemplates a subdivision of that Secretary of State in a branch of networks and another of telecommunications.

In addition to the aforementioned start-up law, the national strategy of artificial intelligence and the adaptation of administrations to online reality, the deployment of 5G , the new mobile communications standard, is essential. This point requires compliance with the road map of the so-called second digital dividend, which is agreed with Brussels and covers an auction of frequencies and a move of signals that should have been completed before June 30, including the restatement and rescheduling of Spanish TVs.

The objectives of the new Government also include training and digital literacy, a social bonus for internet access for vulnerable groups, the promotion of a law on digital rights, new investments in technology, the increase in internet connections throughout the homeland geography and a cybersecurity plan; those goals, at least, mark the programmatic advance in coalition of PSOE and United We can.

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  • Google
  • Carolina Darias
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Social Security
  • United We Can
  • European Union
  • Yolanda Diaz
  • Arancha González Laya
  • Spain
  • France
  • Donald Trump
  • José Luis Escrivá
  • Maria Jesus Montero
  • Nadia Calviño
  • PSOE
  • Pedro Duque

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