The food industry faces a new added cost in full escalation of the price of the shopping basket: the tax on plastic. The tax will enter into force in Spain from January 1, 2023 for non-reusable containers, with a rate of 0.45 euros per kilo of single-use material. And although all business sectors are affected by it, it is of particular concern to the agri-food chain.
Both food manufacturers and distributors are in the eye of the hurricane after the successive historical records in the CPI for these products. The new tax, they argue, will add to the high increase in the costs of energy and raw materials that they have suffered for a year, with the risk that it ends up being passed on to the final consumer. More pressure on food prices, an issue that has fully entered the political agenda.
The agri-food sector calculates significant extra costs due to this tax promoted by the Government. The tax, they recall from the industry, would only be in force in Spain within Europe –Italy has postponed its entry into force– and will tax both non-reusable packaging and those products intended to perform the same function of the packaging, such as packaging.
In addition, it raises the requirements of Extended Producer Responsibility – the system by which the cost of managing the waste generated by the products they put on the market is transferred to manufacturers. With the new regulations, commercial and industrial packaging will be directly included, which until now were being managed privately. In addition, it adds new concepts that companies must take charge of.
"It will have a direct impact on companies of around 690 million euros, to which should be added that of Extended Producer Responsibility, which may mean another additional burden of around 1,150 million euros," says Paloma Sánchez Pello, director of Competitiveness and Sustainability of the Spanish Federation of Food and Beverage Industries (FIAB).
The different links in the food chain are already making their estimates. Asedas, the employers' association that brings together Mercadona, Dia, Consum or Lidl, anticipates that this tax will have a direct impact of around 30 million euros a year. In addition, "there is a high cost that is difficult to quantify related to the administrative and bureaucratic management to carry out the obligations of a tax that implies very different cases and national and international agents", comments María Martínez-Herrera, responsible for the Environment at Asedas. . For example, she adds, the operators are already designing ad hoc computer systems that include the quantification of the plastic used and its derivatives for tax purposes.
Apart from the direct cost overruns, they fear problems derived from the design of the tax. As imports and intra-community acquisition are taxed, the food industry considers that there is a risk that lack of knowledge among community suppliers could cause supply problems if its application is too complex for them. As this tax will only exist in Spain, it would mean a competitive disadvantage compared to other countries, Asedas and FIAB stand out.
There is also a lack of knowledge about its specific application. The Government has not yet published its regulatory development, so uncertainty "is high," confirms Rubén Gimeno, director of the Research Service of the Registry of Economists and Fiscal Advisors (REAF). The biggest doubts, he continues, are plastic imports, how this tax is paid in these cases and how to quantify what part is recyclable.
In the case of exports, Asedas claims that the economic operator can deduct the tax. Otherwise, the Spanish supermarkets point out, their products will be less competitive in the country where they are going to be marketed. "However, the procedure for this return is not clear at all and, to this day, companies do not know how they can carry it out," they explain.
All this confusion has put both the food industry and consumer companies in general on a war footing. The entire sector claimed a few days ago, in an act promoted by Aecoc, to delay the entry into force of the tax for one year given the uncertainty and the complicated economic situation.
The fifteen associations that make up food, beverages, perfumery and cosmetics, drugstores, hotels, textiles, hardware and DIY, household appliances and consumer goods have requested by letter both the Presidency of the Government and the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, a moratorium. To this day they have not received a response. “A postponement would make sense to clarify concepts; there is a great lack of knowledge”, considers Rubén Gimeno, from REAF.
Executive sources explain that, at least for now, the calendar for the application of the new tax is maintained. Entry into force, in three weeks.
