Under the premise that the government’s measures are “late” and “insufficient,” the Broad Front proposed “the elimination of VAT on products of the basic basket”, as ordered by the Senate Finance Commission on 19 products. In addition, the FA proposes that the exemption extends to supergas.
It is requested that the measures be applied immediately, and for a period of no less than six months. They set as a condition that the elimination of the tax be through electronic means of payment, to ensure the tax to the consumer and the profit margin of the businesses.
The measures, which were announced on Monday by the president of the Broad Front, Fernando Pereira, include “the temporary elimination of VAT on diesel for micro, small and medium-sized companies.” In addition, the opposition requests keep fuel prices fixed until the end of the yearand that the sensitive rate of the electricity rate for the most impoverished sectors be temporarily reduced.
For social protection, it proposes a double increase in transfers made by the Social Uruguay Card (TUS) and the Family Equity Plan Allowance (AFAM PE), which must then be adjusted monthly according to the CPI amount.
Request an immediate increase, to be applied on May 1, on public salaries for salary recovery. “It must be carried out in a staggered manner, with a higher percentage for the lowest wages,” the document states, adding that said increase must be carried out within the framework of collective bargaining.
also raises an additional increase in the National Minimum Wage and the call to “all groups (from the private sector) that do not have a correction in July 2022” so that the government ensures the salary increase in the same sense as in the public sector. It adds differential increases for rural workers “who had an extraordinary performance in the last year.”
Regarding pensions, it requests a “permanent increase in pensions that is not deductible from the increase by the Average Salary Index in January 2023”, as well as an additional increase for minimum pensions.
