Podemos proposes to the PSOE to subsidize the basic shopping basket by 14.4% in the face of high food prices

It also proposes a weekly control of prices and fines to supermarkets that take advantage of the aid to increase benefits

MADRID, 16 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

We can demand that the PSOE deploy a 14.4% bonus on the price of the food that makes up the basic shopping basket to achieve that its cost falls to the levels that they presented in February of last year, before the outbreak of the war of Ukraine.

The deployment of this measure would be combined with a control of the prices set by the supermarkets on a weekly basis, and the imposition of fines for those distribution chains that took advantage of this subsidy to improve their profits.

As sources from the purple formation have indicated to Europa Press, We can confirm the refusal of the PSOE to intervene in the market and set a ceiling on the prices of these basic necessities, as they raised a month ago within the Government, and transfer this alternative to subsidize the cost of these products in order to reverse their upward inflation, with a level much higher than the current generic CPI index, and help the consumer.

And it is that prices at a general level fell two tenths in January in relation to the previous month, but raised their interannual rate by two tenths, up to 5.9%; while in the case of food they grew by 15.4% in the interannual rate in January, three tenths less than in December, after the VAT reduction applied to certain products in the shopping basket, in force since January 1 .

Yesterday, and once these data were known, the leader of Podemos and Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, proclaimed that the VAT reduction is "insufficient" and again demanded measures such as intervening in the price of food and the rise in mortgages variable type.

Therefore, and to reverse this trend, the formation proposes to apply the same model that the Government deployed to combat the high prices of fuels during the past year, that is, a bonus that would be effective when paying at the cashier and that would appear reflected in the ticket in supermarkets.

From Podemos they defend that the measure would have a "significant impact" on low-income households", which are those who allocate a greater part of their income to food, and would reduce the price of products such as milk, oil, eggs, meat, fish, fruit or bread.

Likewise, the purple party also proposes that the Food Information and Control Agency "monitor" prices on a weekly basis, with special attention to large surfaces, and impose fines if companies increase their profit margins.

In the event of a repeated infringement, the consideration would become similar to that of a tax offense, as was already proposed in its day for the managers who passed on the extraordinary tax to financial and electrical entities to their clients.

Finally and in the medium term, the purples request to improve the Food Chain Law and establish a price regulation and control commission, in order to improve transparency and prepare recommendations to regulate prices in strategic sectors.

In this case, the purple ones do not link their proposal to the implementation of a tax on extraordinary profits (on 33% of those profits) to the large distribution chains, as they did in January. Thus, their proposal is limited to the bonus, although they would be delighted if the Socialists were in favor of deploying this specific tax for large supermarkets.

In addition, Podemos' request comes after the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has confirmed that next Monday, February 20, it will meet on an extraordinary basis with the Food Chain Observatory, where it will analyze the evolution of prices with supermarkets. food prices.

"If we had not adopted the measures that we adopted in December regarding the VAT drop, the increase would certainly have been much higher," argued the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, who is confident that food prices will gradually drop by the next months.