According to the 2023 Multiple Purpose Homes Survey, the Expanded Basic Food Cane was worth $420.91 in 2023.
President Nayib Bukele announced Tuesday morning that he will send a proposal to the Legislative Assembly, to the Legislative Assembly, tosuspending tariffs on the basic basket for 10 years.
“Today, I will send a proposal to suspend all tariffs on all products from the enlarged basic basket, as well as to 70 other food products for a period of 10 years,” wrote the president who governs his second consecutive term, on Tuesday morning on social network X.
A basket is made up of foods that provide the minimum caloric requirement for a person to carry out an activity, such asdairy, meat, eggs, beans, sugar, fats, French bread or tortilla, rice, vegetables and fruits.
The Basic Food Basket (CBA) was defined in 1983 and classified in simple and expanded, the latter is composed of two simple ones.
According to the 2023 Multiple Purpose Homes Survey, the simple basic basket in the urban area averaged $210.45 for a family of 3.11 members, while theCBA expanded was worth $420.91, an increase of $31.86 compared to the $389.05 it cost in 2022.
As of May 2024, the Simple Basic Food Cane cost $256.56 for 3.73 members, according to reports from the Central Reserve Bank.
This proposal comes after the Bukele government announced theagromarkets, an alternative to municipal markets for Salvadorans to buy national product at low prices, in the face of the increase in food prices. El Salvador buys almost 80 percent of the food it consumes.
The recent survey of Francisco Gavidia University (UFG)revealed that 90 per cent of the population perceives the cost of living more expensiveCompared to last year.
On a national network, on 5 July,Bukele ordered traders and suppliers to stop selling the products overpriced but warned there would be problems.
During his second inauguration on 1 June,Bukele announced he would “sunrow the economy”over the next five years.
Zero tariffs until 2026
On 10 March, the Legislative Assembly approved with 72 votes an extension fora decree that leaves tariffs and vegetables to zero until 31 March 2026. According to New Ideas, 84 products are exempt from tariffs. These include tomatoes, onions, gychies, oil, flour, beef, chicken and pork, among others.
The law was passed on March 13, 2022 and eliminated the Central American import tariff to the country of milk, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, among others; in June 2022, beef products were added; in March 2023, products of turkey and egg meat were added; and in April 2023 pork, chicken, guequiles and bananas were added.
The products without tariffs are: oils and butters, rice, sugar, onions, chillies, fertilizers, black beans, red beans, corn flour, wheat flour, fluid milk, yellow corn, white corn, oranges, potatoes, bananas, cabbage, tomatoes, wheat in cereal, animal feeds, beef, turkey meat and chicken eggs.
Arena proposal
On July 9, the deputy of Arena, Marcela Villatoro, asked againagendaan initiative to reform the Law on the Tax on the Transfer of Furniture and the Provision of Services (VAT) in order to remove the tax on all products from the basic basket, but only obtained three votes, two from Arena and that of the deputy Claudia Ortiz, of the party Vamos.A New Ideas MP voted against.
The proposal has already been submitted with certain variants. On February 8, 2022, Arena applied to exempt basic grains, dairy, flour and oils from VAT. In July 2021, the Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN), which no longer has deputies, called for the elimination of VAT on purchases of less than $40 in fuels. Also, in September 2021, MEP Claudia Ortiz, of Vamos, proposed exempting the products from the basic basket of VAT for one year.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo