The Executive Power sent this Monday to the General Assembly the bill by which the Value Added Tax (VAT) is exemptedfor a period of 30 days, for the sale of fresh, frozen or chilled beef from the roast cut from 10 to 13 ribs. The Senate and Deputies are expected to approve this bill on Tuesday so that the benefit quickly comes into effect.
The government ensures that the “medium quality” roast, the emblem cut and most consumed by Uruguayans, have a maximum price of $230 per kg to the public.
According to the explanatory statement of the bill submitted by the Lacalle Pou government, “beef is an essential component of our population’s eating habits. This importance, based both on the undoubted nutritional value of said good, and on cultural aspects that make up the very conformation of our national identity, generate the need to facilitate, as far as possible, the conditions of access to its consumption by the population”.
According to the project, various factors, “among which the impact on the economy generated by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine stands out, have led to an increase in prices and a retraction in the consumption of the product, particularly in the most disadvantaged socioeconomic sectors. “. He adds that surely, “this situation will have to be reversed according to the vicissitudes of the market to the extent that the world economy stabilizes. However, the Executive Branch considers it convenient to adopt temporary measures that, with an essentially social criterion, affect the formation of the aforementioned prices.
The VAT exemption will be applied exclusively in the event that the roast made in the refrigerator or slaughterhouse is sent for “duly individualized” consumption. The fiscal waiver that this measure will have for the State will be between US$ 650,000 and US$ 1 million.
The president of INAC, Conrado Ferber, had declared that the objective of the VAT reduction is that “cheap and good roast” reaches the consumer because then that product arrives and the tip (of low quality) is removed and sold as part of the agreement and the rest (of higher quality) is sold at a different price. “We are going to put everything on the table, but let’s be honest and assume the commitment,” he said. He added that the consumer “will have to be demanding” in the butcher shops and that the INAC will be controlling that the volumes of that roast leave the refrigerators for the supply.
The kg of medium-quality roast is now around $330 to $350 per kg for the public in butcher shops. One of the butchers specified that that the price drops so much, at least $100 per kilo, it will not be enough with the VAT deductiontherefore, the refrigerators and the merchants who place the product to the consumer will have to do their part.
