Sánchez will compensate the reduction in the electricity tax with the tax on plastic: he will collect twice as much
To finance the spending festival to which the Government of Pedro Sanchez it is necessary to raise or establish new taxes. In order to compensate for the decrease in the collection that the reduction in the tax on electricity, The Government has refused to postpone the entry into force of the tax on plastic, with which it plans to collect twice as much as with the lowering of the electricity rate. This plastic tax is rejected by associations of large consumptionwho affirm that it will contribute to a rise in the price of the shopping basket in the midst of an inflationary spiral.
As collected in the General State Budgets (PGE) presented this week, the Government plans to collect 294 with the tax on electricity, a tax that is levied on the cost of manufacturing electricity. This tax is set by law, amounts to 5.11%, but was lowered last year to deal with the rise in electricity bills to 0.5%. A reduction that will be in force until December 31, although the Socialist Executive itself has already assumed that it will have to be extended beyond that date.
For its part, the so-called officially tax on non-reusable plastic (IPNR), It is intended to try to cut the so-called ‘useful life’ of plastics that cannot be used more than once. Companies that use non-reusable plastic will be required by law to pay an extra fee of 0.45 euros for each kilogram of plastic from next January 1, 2023. With this tax, the Government intends to collect 456,000 million, double what it will collect with the electricity tax.
However, the prospects for the new tax are not good. The companies themselves already warn that the collection with this new tax will increase production costs and it will be much more difficult to cover all expenses. One of the most affected sectors will be supermarkets, that must package most of their products with this plastic. But, unfortunately, it will not be the only consequence that will be suffered, since society will also be noticeably affected.
And it is that this tax is expected to produce an increase in the prices of all the products in the shopping basket that are marketed in small packages to compensate for the changes that the sector must make and its added costs. All this at a time when 95% of products have become more expensive by around 15%. For this reason, the food and consumer business associations believe that “this is not the time to apply a new tax that would only have a negative impact on the competitiveness of companies and on the consumer.”
The “historic” rise in gas and electricity prices is causing “a serious impact” on business costs and “pushing up inflation”. Added to this are the impacts derived from the war in Ukraine -shortage of raw materials, lack of basic supplies such as fertilizers and fuel, among others, as well as the health, economic and social crisis caused by the pandemic and even threats of new strikes in the transport. In this way, Sánchez adds fuel to the fire of inflation with this new tax.
