PP and Junts join forces again to free bars from donating surplus food, with PSOE and Sumar against

The Popular Group ‘sneaks’ another amendment to the Government in a law to exempt donations to buy food from taxes

Dec. 12 () –

The PP and Junts have joined forces again in Congress to introduce a legal reform that will allow bars and restaurants with less than 1,300 square meters of surface area to be freed from the obligation to donate surplus food, a measure that has been approved in the Agriculture Commission despite the fact that PSOE and Sumar, partners of the Government, have voted against.

After the groups reached an agreement on Monday to eliminate the tax on the value of electricity production, this Wednesday night they again gathered their signatures on a transactional amendment to the food loss and waste prevention bill . The measure was incorporated into the law with the support of Vox, ERC and Bildu, while the PNV abstained.

The amendment, to which Europa Press has had access, establishes the obligation for food distribution activities carried out in establishments with a useful exhibition and sales area to the public greater than 1,300 square meters between all their premises. In practice they are mainly large supermarkets or large restaurant chains.

SMALL AGRICULTURAL FARMS ARE ALSO LIVED

Exceptions from this obligation are processing, retail, food distribution, hospitality or restaurant activities carried out in establishments with a surface area of ​​less than 1,300 square meters. Microenterprises and small farms are also exempt from the obligation.

And it was not the only amendment that was incorporated in the commission against the Government’s criteria. The PP also obtained the support of Vox and Junts to force the Government by law to establish, in the shortest possible time, the mechanism for the immediate application of the 0% rate to all deliveries of goods, in kind or in cash, made in concept of donations for the acquisition of food or basic necessities to non-profit entities.

These entities may be foundations, associations declared of public utility, International Development Cooperation organizations, state or regional sports federations in which the Spanish Olympic Committee and the Paralympic Committee are integrated or that have non-profit purposes.

The amendment establishes that this tax regime “will apply exclusively to food and goods that will be used for donations, and products are excluded.”

On the other hand, the commission approved another amendment of the PP to modify the Law on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy and eliminate the requirement that retail businesses of more than 400 square meters allocate 20% of their sales area to offer of products presented without primary packaging. Thus, stores will have to offer these products, but without a mandatory percentage of space.

REFORM OF THE WORKER STATUTE

Added to this is another reform of the Workers’ Statute so that, within the framework of agricultural campaigns, contracts can be formalized due to production circumstances, in order to prevent the lack of labor to harvest the harvest from increasing the waste.

and the Popular Group obtained sufficient support so that owners of agricultural holdings, whether self-employed or companies, agricultural cooperatives and irrigation communities subject to seasonality, have the right to a contract for access to energy transport and distribution networks with two different powers in the same year.

This power would be contracted based on the supply need for the activity, with mere communication by telematic and/or telephone means to its supplier. To this end, the supply companies will provide a toll-free telephone number.

The amendment establishes that the prices of the power term will not have any increase with respect to the application rates, as long as the setting thus established is consistent with the security and economic and financial sustainability of the system included in the electricity sector law.

ERC FORCES GAINING TO BE REGULATED

The one who also managed to introduce measures into the law, in this case against the criteria of the PSOE, was ERC, which added enough yeses to include in the text an additional provision that regulates gleaning, an activity that consists of the search for food that They have been left in the field after the main harvest.

The provision obliges the Government, within a period of one year from the entry into force of the law, to regulate gleaning as a complementary and non-profit activity for the prevention of food losses.