The Popular Parliamentary Group has requested, with a Proposition not of Law in Congress, that the VAT rate applicable to masks, gloves and hydrogels be lowered. Specifically, the GPP proposes to include them in the list of goods to which the reduced rate of VAT of 10% or superreduced of 4% is applied.
As the GPP points out in its initiative, signed by its spokesperson, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, its deputy spokesperson Mario Garcés, its spokesperson for the Treasury, Carolina
Spain, and the popular deputies Soledad Cruz-Guzman and Javier Bas, the high rate of contagion of the coronavirus has made essential protection articles essential: gloves, hydrogels for disinfection and masks. The initial shortage of these products is now joined by a significant rise in price.
Although the Government, through Royal Decree-Law 7/2020, reserved the possibility of regulating the mechanism for fixing the prices of medicines and health products not subject to medical prescription, it has not adopted any measure in this regard. In addition, as the GPP warns, the risk of setting an incorrect maximum price is that a shortage of such products may be generated again.
For this reason, the Popular Parliamentary Group considers that an effective measure is from the current 21% to the reduced rate of 10% or super-reduced rate of 4%, comparing it to other pharmaceutical products that are also essential.
The GPP reiterates its request to Minister Illa for the safe distribution of masks
In addition, the GPP requests the Government to accept the approach of the Pharmaceutical Colleges to carry out a safe distribution of the masks through the 22,000 pharmacy offices, a demand that the Deputy Secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, made to the Minister on last Thursday during his last appearance in Congress.
