On December 27, St Royal Decree Law 20/2022 He proposed a series of measures to respond to the economic and social consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Among these measures, the government decided to cancel them from January 1, 2023 Value added tax (VAT) of certain products in order to ease the economic situation of the consumer.
It was used for this Discount from 4% to 0% Basic needs such as bread, flour, milk, cheese, eggs, fruits, vegetables, legumes, potatoes, cereals, etc. On the other hand, olive and seed oil and pasta experienced a VAT reduction from 10% to 5%.
This tax reduction, as explained Official page of La Moncloa“It will take effect until June 30, 2023. If the annual rate of core inflation (which excludes energy and unprocessed food) is less than 5.5% in March, the validity period will end on May 1, 2023. .
However, according to the Facua Consumer Organisation, “one in three products affected by this VAT drop have increased their prices, representing A noticeable increase in the number of products became more expensive Considering that in February they were practically one in five.”
To confirm this increase, Facua prepared the same March A learning that Collected 1012 price evolutions of various products Food products affected by this drop in VAT.
The intention was to check whether there were irregularities in its application in eight analyzed supermarkets: Alcampo, Aldi, Carrefour, Día, Eroski, Lidl, Hipercor and Mercadona.
As Faqua explained this Friday, this VAT freeze on the aforementioned products “can only reflect an increase if the supplier itself experiences an increase in production or distribution costs.”
The said increase must be justified, because according to the above-mentioned law It is forbidden to upload the application within the business profit margins of all members of the production, distribution or consumption chain.
Supermarkets, research facilities and their price increases
Hipercor is the supermarket with the most anomalies Facua found when applying VAT cuts, as it did in its February survey.
In this chain, 71 out of 167 analyzed prices increased, which represents a 42.2% increase, that is, four out of ten prices increased. Hipercor is followed by Lidl, 26 out of 63 products, 41.2%.
We find Carrefour in the third place, with 65 out of 72 prices, 37.7%. Aldi, on the other hand, has 37.5%, i.e. 21 out of 56 analyzed foods have increased their prices.
It is followed by Eroski, where 40 out of 137 foods are 29.1% more expensive. Meanwhile, Dia did so in 27 out of 136 foods, or 27.2%. Finally, heThe two chains with the lowest percentage growth are Mercadona and Alcampo.
In Mercadona, 27 products out of 144 products represent an increase of 18.7%, while Alcampo is positioned as the lowest price increase with 25 increases among 136 registered prices, 18.3%.
This makes a total of 312 price increases for 1,012 analyzed products, as opposed to 178 products that also increased their prices in February in response to VAT restrictions imposed in early January.
Research catering establishments and their price increases
gets the biggest increase fruits and vegetablesSince 127 of the 312 products that have an increase belong to this type of food, which was the most affected by this price increase with a total increase of 40.4%.
55 prices belong to olive oil or other seeds, with 17.5%; And 47 refer to milk or milk products, 14.9%. It was followed by a 34 times, or 10.8% increase in the price of legumes.
There were 19 increases of 6% for pasta and 17 for rice, rounding out the list at 5.4%. On the other hand, the remaining dozen prices are mostly bread and eggs.
Fruits and vegetables are among the most expensive foods in every supermarket. in MercadonaThe price of 2 kilo netted onions increased by 66.9%.; Three kilos of potatoes per day is 46.5%.
In Hipercor: One kilogram of rice in Sabrozi Diamond increased by 53.3%.; The most expensive product in Alcampo is the piel de sapo melon with 35.4%.
Aldi, on the other hand, A liter of Carbonelli brand olive oil increased by 87.3%.; In Erosk, the price of a kilogram of Buti’s white onion increased by 65.7%; Pomegranates in Carrefour rose in price by 108.9%; Finally, Iceberg Salad at Lidl is up 52.1% compared to the data collected in early January.
Fakua asks for solutions
In April, this consumer organization will once again share new research data. But in the meantime, he must remember that “the main thing is not to let the VAT issue get in the way, especially given the minor effect it has had on the trade list.
What is relevant is that over the last year, prices have increased spectacularly by 40, 60, 80 or even 100%, depending on the product. In fact, this is also reflected in the various observatories published quarterly by ConsumoClaro.
In addition to requesting price intervention by which the government sets basic prices for staple foods under the 1996 Trade Act, FACUA claims to have received non-existent responses from the National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC) prior to the complaints. analyzed channels in January, February and March of the same year.
Source: El Diario
