Due to changes in natural resource tax rates, retail food prices in Latvia may increase by 3-5%, which will be a severe blow to producers, says Ināra Šure, Chairman of the Board of the Latvian Federation of Food Companies (LPUF).
“Signals of plans for tax changes that are being prepared are very disturbing. For example, the dramatic changes in natural resource tax rates driven by the” environmental flag “will be a severe blow to producers, which will be felt by every Latvian, as prices will inevitably rise. “food prices on store shelves are rising by 3-5%,” said Shure.
She also mentioned state support for export-oriented companies as one of the main challenges for future companies in the sector, which is important in the challenges posed by the pandemic.
“Large producers are the main exporters in the country, so the state should understand that the allocated support funds are not expenditures, but investments in the future, which will come back with taxes, export contributions to the state budget,” stressed Shure.
She added that in the conditions of a pandemic, it is necessary to think about the competitiveness of Latvian companies at the global level, for example, in Latvia, the competitiveness of producers in Lithuania compared to Latvia is negatively affected by greater support for Covid-19 affected sectors.
Among the next challenges, Shure also mentioned labor shortages. If in the second quarter of this year the shortage of foreign labor was not significant, because it was possible to use local labor, now the issue of the need to attract foreign labor has come to the fore again. “In our country, the population is shrinking, so the problem of the labor force will not disappear anywhere and will not fade by itself,” stressed the chairwoman of the LPUF council.
It has already been reported that according to the Natural Resources Tax Law, a taxpayer does not currently pay tax on environmentally harmful goods if it ensures compliance with the norms for recovery of environmentally harmful goods waste, as well as if it has established and applied an environmentally harmful goods waste management system and concluded with the State. an agreement of the environmental services regarding the application of this system or has entered into an agreement with the managers of goods harmful to the environment regarding participation in the waste management system.
However, the planned state tax guidelines for 2021-2025 envisage that in the future, producers who have entered into a cooperation agreement with one of the packaging managers for the management of their packaging will have only an 80% exemption from the natural resources tax. The remaining 20% in the form of a natural resource tax will have to be paid by the state.
–
