The City Council will use its 2022 savings to pay the new waste tax approved by the Government of Spain

Benidorm City Council will use its savings from the 2022 financial year to pay the new waste tax designed and approved by the Government of Spain, which “the only thing it does is force us to pay more for taking garbage to El Campello landfill.” This was announced today by the Councilor for the Treasury, Aida García Mayor, who reported that “a budget modification has been prepared from the Economic area to pay with own funds the more than 837,000 euros of this new tax, which the Government of Pedro Sánchez "This was done out of hand last year and has made the waste management that all municipalities and, by extension, the neighbors pay for, more expensive."

Specifically, according to the technical report from the Engineering area, in 2023 Benidorm has to pay 691,997.10 euros for this new state waste tax. "But in reality - the councilor has clarified - is not the amount that we are going to have to pay because we must add 21% VAT to this, which amounts to 145,319.39 euros." In total, 837,316.49 euros more than the previous year for the same transport and treatment of waste which must be paid now.

García Mayor explained that Law 7/2022 on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy “is not only limited to creating a new tax for rejecting waste to landfills but also establishes that the companies that manage these landfills must pay it and then bill it to the municipalities.”

This "implies that in addition to paying the amount of the tax, the municipalities also have to pay VAT, so the robbery is even greater."

The councilor has clarified that "although Law 7/2022 speaks of a moratorium of up to three years for municipalities to adapt their garbage rates to assume these new imposed expenses, there is no moratorium when demanding collection because The City Councils already have the invoices for the first three quarters on the table and we have to disburse the money without delay.”

García Mayor has stressed that "the local government chaired by Mayor Toni Pérez has decided that the amount for the 2023 financial year of this new tax will be paid with funds from the City Council and thus not pass it on to the residents."

The person in charge of the Treasury has highlighted that "as we already said in October, the new waste legislation imposed by the Government of Spain and by the previous heads of the Generalitat, together with the increases in the price of energy and fuel, increases the cost of transportation and treatment of waste.”

"We understand," he stressed, "that citizens are dissatisfied with the increase in the garbage rate that we approved in the previous plenary session, in which expenses such as this new state tax are already contemplated, but the City Council cannot continue." facing these increases with its resources as it has done in 2022 and 2023.”

Thus, García Mayor recalled that "in these two years the City Council has paid more than 3 million euros so that citizens and the productive fabric did not have to do so, which in this time have not seen a single cent increase in their receipts. But the municipal cushion is not infinite.”

Regarding the budget modification to pay the nearly 840,000 euros, the councilor has anticipated that the local government will take it to full session on Monday. Once the amount of the tax is settled, "we hope that the Government of Spain also does its part and notifies the City Councils that funds will arrive to us for the purchase of containers, trucks and other resources that improve the service, because this tax "It is a finalist even though last year not a single cent came for improvements."