The senator for the Broad Front, Daniel Olesker, spoke critically of the bill introduced by the Executive in the Parliament to exempt from VAT some bakery products. In this sense, he described the measure as “late and insufficient”.
“Today we voted again for a project to eliminate VAT, in this case on baked goods. A project that once again, like the strip roast, was late and insufficient,” said the member of the Socialist Party.
“Late because it comes after inflation spikes and, in the best of cases, freezes prices at a very high level. Annualized inflation has been on the rise since April, May 2021. Baked goods increased 12% between October and December and 31% between January and February, when the war was not yet on, “Olesker said.
Ineffective measure
On the other hand, he said that it is insufficient because “it only acts on a small group of products. That time it was the strip roast, today white bread, country bread and pasta. It does not measure a comprehensive basket that can effectively affect the pockets of citizens”.
Olesker reflected on the scope of the measure, which he charted as a minimum. He said: “How much of an impact is this? If we take the two exonerations, those for roasts and baked goods, they weigh approximately 3.8% on family consumption. Eliminating 10% VAT is eliminating 0.38%. For an income of 50 thousand pesos it means a saving of 190 pesos”.
“In addition, this is for a month. Does anyone think that the structural inflationary effects propagated and accelerated by the armed conflict are going to end in a month?” he added.
For the senator “it is no longer enough to take late and insufficient measures, we have to think about income. Retirees and public workers will not have a raise until January 2023 and in three months inflation ate between 75% and 80% of their salary.
Finally, the opposition parliamentarian asked for an increase in salaries and liabilities in the middle of the year.
“We clearly demand that on July 1 there be an increase in salaries and liabilities at the end of the semester. An increase for them and for the private ones an adjustment, in the case of not having an increase in June”, he requested. “Only with a significant increase in salaries and retirements is action
