Day: May 14, 2014

Turre gives in over water – it will all come from Galasa

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Turre townhall has caved in and announced that all water in the town will, from the end of this week, be supplied by Galasa. It´s not a solution to the major problems affecting the town water supplies, but it’s a first step. The major problem with the third world quality of water supplied to most of Turre is that it comes from a reservoir up behind the village that’s filled from local wells.

Power lines caused both recent major fires

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Downed power lines caused both recent major fires in Almeria province, according to the official INFOCA investigation into the cause of the blazes which destroyed almost 6,000 ha of forest and scrub. The usual blight of unnecessary, badly maintained, unsightly Endesa power lines that run riot over the province have again caused major disruption. (Not a fan of the company).

Wealth tax will be abolished next year, but IBI to go up

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Wealth tax will be abolished ahead of the 2015 elections, but IBI (Spanish tax on property) looks likely to go up again to compensate. That will annoy the hundreds of thousands of expat property owners who will see their IBI tax possibly double or triple. The wealth tax is known in Spanish as impuesto del patrimonio and is administered by the regions. It was originally centralised in 2008, but was returned to the regions back Continue reading Wealth tax will be abolished next year, but IBI to go up→

14 “zombie stocks” still on Spanish stock market

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14 companies are still listed on the Spanish stock market, despite being insolvent. These “zombie” stocks haven’t been delisted, but continue to clog up the system despite trading in their stocks being suspended. When trading in Vértice 360 was suspended by the Spanish market regulator CNMV after the company declared insolvency in April, this brought the number of Spanish stocks with trading suspended theoretically to 14.

Antas bridge to be rebuilt

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The bridge at Antas that collapsed during the Sept 2012 storms is finally going to be rebuilt. Four out of the 15 spans of this bridge were washed away in the flood. The new section of the bridge will replace these with just two spans, which will allow 167% more water underneath, it seems. It’s being built by Progall (surprise!) at a cost of €358.000. Mayor Isabel Belmonte reckons a thousand lorries are having to Continue reading Antas bridge to be rebuilt→

Massive police operation against fake companies

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A massive National Police crackdown on fake companies carried out yesterday saw 740 people arrested and a further 1241 people charged with creating and operating fake companies. Across Almeria, 13 fake companies have been closed down and 90 people arrested. These companies are used to launder money, get immigrants their paperwork, steal public subsidies and other nefarious purposes. So someone might setup a fake company, use it launder money, and at the same time give Continue reading Massive police operation against fake companies→

Magda Álvarez sees her assets embargoed

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Magdalena Álvarez used to be Andalucian Minister for Taxation and Economy. She’s also up to her neck in the ERE slush fund scandal, accused of helping to skim hundreds of millions of euros from taxpayers in order to setup false pension schemes and redundancy payments across Andalucia. Anyway, the judge in charge of the investigation slammed a bail of 29.568.129,20 euros on her last month. (Gotta love that 20 cents on the end!). Naturally enough, Continue reading Magda Álvarez sees her assets embargoed→