Madrid (EFE) fresh legumes and vegetables.
This is clear from the data released this Wednesday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which show that in general the Consumer Price Index for food and non-alcoholic beverages rose 0.4% in the monthly rate and 15, 4% per year.
In its latest package of measures against the effects of the war in Ukraine, the Government decided to abolish VAT for six months on a series of basic products to curb food inflation.
This decision applies to common bread and bread-making flour; milk, cheese and eggs, as well as fruits, vegetables, legumes, tubers and cereals that have the status of natural or fresh products.
In addition, the Executive reduced VAT from 10 to 5% on olive and seed oils, and pasta.
Of this entire list, only rice, 3.7%, and fresh or refrigerated vegetables, 0.1%, became more expensive compared to last December.
The products that became cheaper in a month were edible oils without counting olive oil (-6.1%), fresh or refrigerated fruits (-4.2%) and pasta (-3.5%) , according to INE data.
All the foods included in this shopping basket maintain their prices in double-digit percentages above those of January 2022, except in the case of fresh or refrigerated fruits, which have become more expensive by 4% per year.
Consumers ask for more VAT cuts on food and control measures
The consumer organizations OCU and Facua have coincided this Wednesday in considering it necessary to lower VAT on more basic foodstuffs in the shopping cart -especially meat and fish- and request more control measures so that this tax reduction is transferred to prices.
Almost all foods for which the Value Added Tax (VAT) has been reduced or eliminated since the beginning of this year have become cheaper in January, compared to the previous month, with the exception of fresh legumes and vegetables.
The spokesman for the Consumer Organization (OCU), Enrique García, has told EFE that the measure adopted by the Government has led to a drop in prices that has been noted, “although little”, for which reason it continues to seem “insufficient ”.
García recalled that, according to the distribution data, the products in which VAT has been touched represent only 25 or 27% in terms of volume of the usual purchase, so this decrease could have been “more pronounced”. if it had been extended to other products, as requested from OCU.
Among his lines of claims, he has pointed out, has always been that of lowering taxes on products that “nutritionally are healthier.”
Looking ahead to the coming months, from OCU they do not see significant drops in the cost of the shopping basket because “the origin is in production costs and there are no elements that give us to understand that they are going to change”.
Yes, he has shown hope in the effect that the stability of energy prices -electricity and gas- may have for a food chain in which these costs are essential for production, conservation and distribution, for example.
García has also called for control by the administrations of this drop in VAT which, according to the Royal Decree, has to affect what the consumer pays.
And it has placed the National Competition Market Commission, the Food Information and Control Agency (AICA) and the Ministries of Consumption and Agriculture, Fisheries and Food as responsible for this control.
For the spokesman for the consumer organization Facua, Rubén Sánchez, these data “continue with the trend of months ago” since, in his opinion, the VAT limitation on certain foods has not been enough, which is why he calls for more protection measures. action for its reduction.
In addition, Sánchez has made it ugly that the Government “after a month and a half” has not made public any report regarding the surveillance of prices in supermarkets, something that he has described as “irresponsible” and “opaque”.
