Reduce to 10 percent VAT on food to support family economy, ask in the Senate

 

• In the border strip with the United States, a reduced rate of this tax is already applied, highlights Manuel Añorve Baños 

 

Senator Manuel Añorve Baños, of the PRI, is promoting an initiative to reduce the Value Added Tax on food from 16 to 10 percent, in order to immediately reduce the prices of basic products, boost consumption and protect the family economy from the effects of inflation.

 

He argued that in the border strip with the United States a reduced VAT rate is already applied, which has proven to be of great help to the families that live in those municipalities, so it is proposed to extend these benefits to the entire national territory.

 

The legislator, who registered this draft decree in the Parliamentary Gazette on February 2, proposed reforms to articles 1 and 2 A of the Value Added Tax Law.

 

Añorve Baños recalled that the State is empowered to implement economic measures that directly support the population, but despite the efforts of the Bank of Mexico, the inflation rate closed in December 2022 at 7.82 percent, the highest figure for a month of December since 2000, according to the National Consumer Price Index.

 

In his explanatory statement, he added that, according to an analysis by the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, the poorest people allocate a greater fraction of their income to the purchase of food.

 

"Thus, inflation for households in the first decile, experienced inflation of 9.7 percent, higher than the generalized and, on the other hand, households with incomes greater than 54 thousand pesos experience lower inflation."

 

He recalled that all countries measure in a different way and with different variables the growth and evolution of their economy and, in the case of Mexico, INEGI monthly monitors 235 thousand prices in 46 cities of the country, to know which product or service has greater interference in the consumption of families.

 

"Basic products such as serrano pepper, cooked food and fresh tomatoes were some of the goods that increased the most in price, hitting once again the already precarious family economy."

 

"There is no doubt that, in this six-year term, in Mexico the poor come first, especially when it comes to suffering the increase in prices and resenting the excessive increase in inflation that reduces their purchasing capacity," said Añorve Baños.