Kirsty Mckenzie
TAXES on plastic packaging are to be introduced in next year’s budget as part of attempts to cut environmental waste.
Spain’s government plan to limit the most environmentally damaging single-use plastic products and hope to raise 1.8 billion euros from the new ‘green’ taxes.
Ministers are also considering a higher levy on sugary beverages in the hope of raising a total of 6.8 billion euros ($7.96 billion), its draft budget showed.
The hike will see value-added tax on sweetened beverages jump from 10% to 21%.
Parliament has already given its green light to the implementation of the two more controversial taxs.
Firstly the so-called Google tax that will see a 3% tax on digital services, such as advertising and data sales, on revenues booked locally by large tech firms such as Google, Amazon and Facebook.
A second controversial tax, known as ‘Tobin tax’, is expected to raise 850 million euros next year in Spain. A 0.2% rate would be applied to transactions of shares of listed companies with a market cap higher than 1 billion euros.
Spain sent the budget plan, which projects a deficit of 7.7% and an economic rebound of at least 7.2% as previously announced, to the European Commission late on Thursday.
This year, the government expects a recession of 11.2% – the worst since the civil war – and a budget gap of 11.3% due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
