The pocketbooks of Canary Island families not only suffer the consequences of international volatility but also the weight of an outdated tax system that the distribution sector deems obsolete. Alfredo Medina, General Secretary of ASODISCAN, the employers’ association of large distribution, has raised his voice on La Radio Canaria, demanding a drastic measure from the regional government: the temporary suspension of the AIEM (Arbitrio sobre Importaciones y Entregas de Mercancías). According to the representative of large retail chains, this tax, originally designed to protect local production, has become a price multiplier that exacerbates a shopping basket that has been under unsustainable upward pressure for ‘years’.
Although the regional government has made a move by reducing the IGIC on basic items like salt and butter, the employers’ association considers this progress ‘positive but insufficient’. Medina claims that the price crisis is not a temporary phenomenon stemming from recent military conflicts, but rather a structural trend that has been dragging the archipelago for three years. In this scenario of chronic price increases, any tax relief is perceived as a necessary lifeline for families who, in an increasing number, admit to facing serious difficulties in making ends meet.
ASODISCAN’s focus on the AIEM brings the discussion about the relevance of certain mechanisms within the Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF) to the forefront. The sector argues that, in the face of persistent inflation, it makes no sense to maintain taxes on imported products that ultimately inflate the final supermarket receipt. ‘It’s worth suspending it while the pressure continues,’ argues Medina, urging a thorough analysis of which items and tax types are unfairly penalizing the competitiveness of companies and the purchasing power of citizens.
The association’s proposal seeks not only a temporary truce but also a more flexible fiscal policy adapted to the Canary reality. With freight and commodity prices at critical levels, large distribution warns that one-off reductions in indirect taxes are mere patches if the entry costs of goods into the islands are not addressed. The challenge for the Canary Islands government is now to balance the protection of local industry offered by the AIEM with the urgency of curbing a price escalation that threatens to perpetuate precariousness in the archipelago.
