The final amount are 10,500 euros in favor of the Food Bank of Cáceres and another 10,500 euros for the Food Bank of Badajoz. The money will come out of the budgets of this year of the Junta de Extremadura and will be another oxygen balloon for these entities that know that hard times are coming and that they will have to attend to vulnerable families affected by the cononarivus crisis. What is the reason that this help now exists? It is the result of the request of the National Association of Solidarity Food (ANDAS), who has traveled the country with his proposal but for now only in Extremadura have they succeeded in making it go ahead.
The agreement is as follows: of all the products that have been donated by individuals or companies during the collection campaigns carried out by the Food Banks of the region each year, the total amount of VAT paid for them is calculated. And the Board reinvests that same amount in more food. It is a symbolic gesture but one that makes sense if one takes into account that the regional administration manages 50% of the money that is entered into the public coffers for that VAT tax carried by food products. The other 50% goes to the central government. “We do not intend that the VAT be abolished, it would be complicated and also the objective of donating more food would not be achieved, but rather that an amount equivalent to its collection is for more food,” explains Santiago López, president of ANDAS.
At the proposal of the PP
The amendment for his proposal to go ahead was presented by the Popular Parliamentary Group and transferred by the Socialist Parliamentary Group to the bill of regional budgets.
López wants to highlight the role that Extremadura has played by taking the initiative to give the green light to his idea. «It was the first in Spain and we are sure that this will encourage more autonomous communities to join this project, to follow that good example, “he says with enthusiasm.
Likewise, they also have a petition underway to the Ministry of Finance to do the same with that other 50% that comes from VAT.
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