Madrid Spain.- Spain announced this Tuesday a new aid package to alleviate the rise in the cost of living, mainly food, which includes the abolition of VAT on food from the basic basket and aid of 200 euros to families earning less than 27,000. euro per year.
In his press conference at the end of the year, the President of the leftist Government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, announced that they will reduce “for 6 months the VAT from 4 percent to 0 percent for all basic food items.”
Likewise, this tax will be reduced from 10 percent to 5 percent for oil and pasta. Fish and meat products were excluded from the tax reductions.
Sánchez also announced aid of 200 euros for families earning less than 27,000 euros a year, about 4.2 million, in order to “compensate for the rise in food prices.”
The socialist leader estimated the cost of this new series of aid to respond to the economic and social consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February at 10 billion euros, and the total of the six packages approved since then at 45 billion.
The Sánchez government multiplied aid in recent months to contain inflation, which has skyrocketed throughout Europe, especially due to the war in Ukraine.
In response, inflation has eased in Spain since it reached a record of 10.8 percent in year-on-year terms in July, since it stood at 6.8 percent in November.
Despite this, food prices resisted going down, registering an increase of 15.3 percent year-on-year in November.
Insufficient, according to Opposition and union
These announcements come to the point that Spain is entering an electoral year, with municipal elections and in many regions in May, and national legislative elections in November.
The polls are not good for Sánchez and give an advantage to the first opposition party, the conservative Popular Party (PP), led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
A PP that this Tuesday criticized that, with his measures, Sánchez “arrives late and falls short of the situation that the Spanish are experiencing,” said his spokesman, Cuca Gamarra.
Other measures announced this Tuesday by the Government were the extension for six months of the reduction in taxes on electricity and gas, whose VAT was reduced in October to 5 percent, and the prohibition, until the end of 2023, of cutting essential supplies to the most vulnerable families.
The Government also extended until the end of next year the prohibition of increases of more than 2 percent in the rent of the habitual residence.
Likewise, the discount of 50 percent of the price of urban public transport is extended during the first semester, and throughout the year the free subscriptions for suburban and medium-distance trains.
