Reduced VAT for fruit: Healthy eating becomes a tax issue in the EU
Governments remain free to determine how much tax to impose on food, and in many cases sweets are cheaper. European Parliament: "This is not how you fight obesity." Commission insists on fruit in schools
Brussels – Healthy food but less tasty or pleasure for the palate that does not help to be healthy? The European Union has mixed views on the diet of their children. On shopping advice, not everyone tries to steer towards fruits and vegetables, and they do not discourage chocolate, sweets, high-calorie bars, and the like. It’s a question of VAT, the value-added tax with which governments fill state coffers. Tax policy remains a national prerogative, so everyone does as they please. The result is that “a chocolate bar often costs less than a piece of fruit,” MEPs say in a parliamentary question.
Specifically, the concern regards the repercussions of a pricing policy that discourages fruits and vegetables among younger people. “Unhealthy eating leads to increased obesity and non-communicable diseases,” the group of MEPs denounces, calling for a reversal of a trend that sees one in five young people aged 16-24 overweight.
A situation known to the European Commission but which it can do little about, Climate Officer Wopke Hoekstra explained, responding on behalf of the college. “When adopting the 2022 reform of the Value Added Tax (VAT) rates, Member States unanimously agreed on allowing for the maximum flexibility for food.” As a result, Member States can choose to apply reduced or super-reduced (below 5 percent) VAT rates or a zero rate (VAT exemption) to food supply. Only a few States made these choices.
A kindergarten cafeteria. The EU promotes the consumption of fruits and vegetables in schools [photo: imagoeconomica]
Romania, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium have introduced tax policy initiatives to encourage the consumption of domestically produced fruits and vegetables. However, the measure aims to support local agriculture with the same agricultural products rather than making fruit more cost-appealing than sweets.
The Community Executive does not intend to implement fiscal measures to encourage healthier eating. On this, Hoekstra was clear. This is also because anything related to taxation policies is of exclusive competence of national governments. Moreover, as the Commissioner for Climate continues, “experience shows that a reduction in tax rates has only a marginal impact” on final consumer prices.
However, it will not stand idly by. At the European Union level, there will continue to be a push for the use of fruit in schools, as is the case now. “The EU school scheme, which aims at increasing the consumption of fruit and vegetables and milk and milk products and shaping healthier diets, is being reviewed,” Hoekstra said. The goal is ” to explore how to enhance its contribution to sustainable food consumption.”
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