Simon Hunter
THE SPANISH Cabinet on Tuesday approved an extension to a raft of measures that were put in place to help combat the cost-of-living crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and the ongoing conflict. A reduction in VAT on foodstuffs and discounts on public transport, for example, were due to come to an end on June 30.
“Today we have approved a seventh package of measures that will be applied during the second half of the year in order to continue efficiently responding to the impact of the war in Ukraine,” said Nadia Calviño, one of Spain’s deputy prime ministers, speaking on Tuesday after the Cabinet meeting had concluded.
The cost of the extension to the measures will be €3.8 billion according to figures cited by news agency Europa Press, an amount that will rise to a total impact of €8.9 billion once, for example, the discounts to public transport have been applied.
Calviño, who is also the minister for economic affairs and digital transformation, said that the government will have allocated more than €47 billion to the seven different packages since the war broke out in February 2022.
Among the measures that will stay in place is the scrapping of the 4% VAT rate on basic foodstuffs, including items such as flour, milk, eggs and fruit.
As for transport, discounts will stay in place for travel cards on national networks while the government will credit 30% of the cost of regional tickets provided that local administrations top up that discount to 50% in total.
Hauliers and farmers will also continue to enjoy a 10-cent subsidy on a litre of diesel during the third quarter of the year, a figure that will fall to five cents a litre in the last quarter.
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