There will be no tax on extraordinary profits from Mercadona, Carrefour, Alcampo or Día, among other distribution chains. The Minister of Finance and Public Function, María Jesús Montero, has cooled this Thursday the possibility of approving this type of temporary tax, which Portugal has activated, at a time when the rise in the price of food marks records much higher than those of average inflation. The proposal of Unidas Podemos is discarded by the PSOE but others continue to be negotiated.
Montero has affirmed that the fiscal package that the Government is going to activate as of January 1 consists of the tax on energy companies, banks and large fortunes. With these three figures, the tax offensive will end. “At this moment, the Ministry of Finance is not considering any additional measure, although we do have a debate with all sectors and also with the food and distribution sector to allow this moderation of prices in the shopping basket that all we are pursuing, but there is no pretension to impose a tax ”, the minister assured in an interview on Antena 3.
The measure that does continue to be negotiated is the food check for the 7 million families with the least income. The idea defended by the United Podemos negotiating team is that this aid is around 200 or 300 euros, although Podemos sources yesterday raised the amount to 500.
In the PSOE they do not rule out launching such an initiative, which would complete the aid of 200 euros that incomes of less than 14,000 euros can already collect. They consider that it would be the most direct measure and that it would comply with the recommendations of international organizations to direct aid towards the most vulnerable.
The negotiation continues to approve the next anti-inflation decree in the coming days. Montero, however, has refused to specify the measures that will be adopted to lower the price of basic food products, as confirmed by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, last weekend in Barcelona. The Finance Minister has limited herself to pointing out that the Government is contemplating “different scenarios” to reduce inflation in the shopping basket and assured that no definitive decision has been made.
As he explained, the Executive will choose “within a few days” the measure that he believes “is best suited” to his objective of making the shopping basket cheaper.
“Now we focus precisely on where inflation is hitting the most insistently, such as the shopping basket. After having moderated energy prices and fuel prices, now it is time to put the accent on this issue and we are working on different measures that we will tell about ”, he added.
With fifteen days to go until the end of the year, the Government refuses to specify how aid for fuels will be extended. The only thing that the economic vice president, Nadia Calviño, has expressed is that the professional sectors will be taken into account. No member of the Executive has specified whether the population in general or a part of it will be able to continue enjoying the discount of 20 cents.
Montero has assured this morning that they will rush “until the last day” to analyze the behavior of the markets and consider whether it is necessary to extend this measure beyond December 31. “We are reviewing it and we do not anticipate the meaning of any of the measures because we are waiting to find out exactly how the price of oil is going to evolve,” he pointed out.
