This measure will be maintained until June 30 or until core inflation drops below 5.5%

MADRID, 28 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The First Vice President and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, has warned retailers that the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) will ensure that the VAT reduction is transferred to food prices, because Otherwise, there will be penalties.

Calviño explained that the royal decree-law establishes the obligation for distributors to have this drop in VAT "positively" affect the shopping cart, so the Government will be "very vigilant and very attentive" to achieve this target.

"I am confident that the sector, which is also very aware that it has a special responsibility at this time, will collaborate and transmit this drop in prices, which will immediately be felt in the pockets of Spanish families, and if not, the CNMC will have a very clear indication to monitor it and there will be sanctions if it is not complied with," Calviño warned in statements to TVE collected by Europa Press.

The Minister for Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation has stressed that this is an "exceptional" measure that tries to contain the evolution of the price of basic foods.

"Now that the price of energy is already being contained, what worries the most is precisely the shopping basket, and what we have foreseen is that this drop in VAT will continue until June, unless inflation falls faster than what we are anticipating, that is to say, if in the month of March or April we are seeing core inflation, which does not include food and energy, is already below 5.5%, well, in the last two months of the measure , May and June, a higher VAT level would already be recovered", he pointed out.

In this sense, as he explained, this measure will be maintained until June 30 or until core inflation falls below 5.5%. Thus, if it falls below that rate, the usual VAT tax rate will be recovered on the affected food.