Alex Trelinski
A GROUP of Benidorm residents have organised a demonstration this Sunday to protest against big hikes in IBI property and garbage tax rates.
IBI is going up 22.94% next year while refuse taxes are up by 71.82%.
The Partido Popular council led by mayor Toni Perez justified the rises by saying rising costs were to blame for the IBI increase and they had absorbed rises in recent years within their own budgets.
It means that a home owner that paid €400 this year will have to find another €92 in 2024.
The garbage tax hike has been explained by having to apply regional and national laws, resulting it going up from €112.746 to €193.72 per domestic property.
The increases in both taxes are substantially higher for businesses in the city.
Sunday’s demonstration will be in the Plaza de SSMM los Reyes de España in front of the town hall- starting at 10.30am.
Isabel Gonzalez and Nadia Dominguez, spokespeople for the residents protest, said that their concerns were over the ‘disproportionate’ rise in both taxes ‘at the same time’.
They said it will affect the purchasing power of many Benidorm families and added that though they understand the need for rises, they should have been ‘staggered’ or only one tax increased.
Gonzalez and Dominguez pointed out their protest was non-political but ‘simply expresses a discontent among residents’.
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