The Government opens to review the Aiem list if there are products that are not manufactured in the Canary Islands

The Government opens to review the Aiem list if there are products that are not manufactured in the Canary Islands

Image of a consumer in an establishment in Arrecife, Lanzarote. / CARRASCO

In 2024 there will be an intermediate review but before that, if it is shown that there is no production on the islands of any item with a tax, it will be removed from the list

Silvia Fernandez

The
Deputy Minister of Finance, Planning and European Affairs of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fermín Delgadoopens the door to a review of the list of items taxed with the Excise Tax on the Importation and Delivery of Merchandise (Aiem) -a rate that aims to protect local industry against products that come from abroad and with lower costs- as long as it is shown that they are not manufactured in the archipelago.

As Delgado said,
the Aiem will be reviewed globally in the year 2024as established by the norm in the middle of the 2021-2027 period for which the renewal was approved,
but in this way everything "when it is shown that there is no specific production in the Canary Islands" can be analyzed. "They are small changes that, if they are sufficiently justified that it is not produced or that this product should not have entered, is corrected," insists Delgado, who in fact ensures that it has already been done in the past. "When it is raised and demonstrated in an accredited manner, this product can be removed after analyzing it with the General Directorate of European Affairs and the Canary Islands Tax Agency," he says.

The Aiem closes the year with a record collection and various sectors demand its review

The vice-counselor points out, even so, that
does not know of any product that is currently taxed "unjustifiably» after the last review in which they released about twenty products. “That cleaning has already been done. Twenty products were released and we introduced others and in the end there are 156 left”, says Delgado, who points out that the previous work on the new Aiem was developed in 2018, even before he arrived at the department.

At this point, note that
the Aiem underwent an annual review in 2018 after the European Commission commissioned an external consultancy a study of the different possible scenarios. "From all this, it was authorized that there were conditions to maintain the Aiem in the Canary Islands, this tariff with a protectionist and extraordinary nature," adds the deputy minister.

At this point, Delgado points out that
the products protected by the Aiem must have a production in the Canary Islands of between 5% and 90%Hence, it rejects that an abuse is being committed and taxing products that are not manufactured on the islands.

Food blames the high prices of the shopping cart on Aiem and demands its elimination

Yes, the deputy director acknowledges that
There are exceptions of productions that are below or above these percentages but because certain circumstances occur, such as that it is a strategic product, that it is a key product for a certain island, area or region, or because of the volume of employment it generates . «More than 90% defend themselves only because they are competitive and to enter they have to have a minimum of production but there are exceptional criteria that are evaluated outside the quota because they are companies that could disappear and that would have a great impact on the economy. of the islands," he explains.

Tariffs like Aiem cause welfare loss: a few win over the rest

Do not confuse collection with tax advantage

On the other hand, Delgado clarifies before the statements of the members of Cecapyme that they indicate that the commitment of the Canary Islands with Brussels was not
exceed revenues of 150 million euros per year year of the Aiem, that this amount of money does not refer to collection but to the tax advantage that is given to the Canarian companies that this tax protects. "It is an important point that I would like to clarify because it is not as indicated by Cecapyme and it leads to confusion for citizens," says Delgado, who explains that
The 150 million committed by Brussels is what is left to enter if the Aiem were applied to the industries it protects and give an example. «Imagine that the Aiem is applied at 10% to some products that have a value of 100 euros. It shows an income of 10 euros. At the same time we have some Canarian companies, which are protected by Aiem, which produce 50 euros. In his case, the Aiem, if applied, would generate an income of five euros. Those five euros is the tax advantage committed to Brussels, not the 10 euros of collection », he explains.

The Government 'skips' the collection ceiling set by Europe for Aiem despite making the purchase more expensive

In this sense, according to the data handled by the vice-counselor,
In 2018, the Aiem collection was 140 million euros, while due to the tax advantage, the amount was 87 million., which is below the 150 million committed to Brussels. From 2022 for now there is no data.