He Parliament yesterday approved the bottled water tax exemption throughout the metropolitan area as long as the water emergency lasts, within the framework of the water crisis experienced by this sector of Uruguay for several weeks. According to the voted project, the value of this product will drop by a third.
The National Administration of State Sanitary Works (OSE) continues to distribute water with higher levels of salinity than it usually did, while the reserves in the Severine Pass They continue to decline, reaching new all-time lows—it is at 4.4% of its capacity. This situation makes the state water company request again to be able to increase the levels of sodium and chlorides to continue supplying Montevideo and its surroundings in the coming days.
In this context, Parliament voted to exonerate from Value Added Tax (VAT) to bottled water as one of the first measures in the framework of the water emergency declared by the president Luis Lacalle Pou last Monday. This will make its value drops “one third”according to what the nationalist senator said in court Sergio Botana.
In this way, the 6-liter mineral water drums that currently cost around 125 or 130 pesos would remain at an approximate value between 83 and 86 pesos; while the 2-liter bottles that today cost around 60 pesos could be obtained starting next Monday for around 40 pesos.
These prices vary according to the brand of water and the more or less large size of the bottle. He Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) makes a weekly survey of the prices of bottled water —with and without gas— that will allow a more precise follow-up of the final values from the new law.
voting in parliament
The initiative was voted on by all the political parties and unanimously in the Senate yesterday afternoon and passed to Deputies, where it was submitted to a new vote during the night, in which it obtained 64 votes in favor and one against. With your approval, mineral waters and sodas are exempt from VAT “until the end date of the water emergency declaration”.
Another of the recitals of the measure aims to generate “a VAT refund scheme included in the purchases in the market and imports of goods and services destined to directly and indirectly integrate the cost of the goods included in the aforementioned alienations”.
During the debate, the Broad Front proposed an addition to the bill that was not approved, which established the fixing the retail price of bottled water. This price “may not exceed the average value of the sale to the public as of May 31, 2023 resulting from the report published by the Consumer Price Information System, deducting all tax charges,” the statement presented by the senator established. Sebastian Sabini.
The senator pointed out that the government arrived late to a proposal that had already been made by the FA on May 10. On the other hand, when justifying the initiative that was discarded, he stressed the importance of setting a price since tax exemption is not enough. “People are going to pay what they put in front of them if you need to buy water. We must ensure that the price goes down and reaches the families, and with this project it is not guaranteed, ”he estimated.
Source: Ambito
