Just a few hours before the INE releases the new food inflation data for the month of April -which the Government trusted would begin to notice the drop in the costs of raw materials but that the drought has ruined these forecasts – the Government has rushed to approve in an extraordinary Council of Ministers convened this Thursday a package of aid and investments for a total of 2,190 million euros to alleviate the consequences in the field of droughts and floods that, they have recognized, will be “increasingly frequent”.
Specifically, aid for the primary sector amounts to 784.2 million euros divided into ten measures. The objective is “to ensure the production of the sector and thus supply food.” In this way, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, wanted to make it clear that a sufficient supply is “necessary” so that there are no “new consequences on prices”, as has happened with oil, which has suffered serious price increases in supermarkets given the low production in recent months.
To these aids for the sector are added 1,400 million for investments and improvements in hydraulic infrastructures throughout Spain. On the one hand, 700 million to act in the hardest-hit basins, reductions in water regulation and use fees, 36 million for works in pumping stations or reservoirs, 610 million after an agreement with Acuamed to replace Júcar groundwater -Vinalopó for desalination plants, as well as a special protection of Doñana after approving the declaration of general interest of the State, the replacement in Matalascañas of groundwater pumps by other superficial ones and authorizing transfers to the Guadalquivir.
Planas recalled in the press conference after the Council of Ministers that this aid package is “complementary” to the aid for the sector already approved, such as the reduction of 1,800 million euros in personal income tax for more than 800,000 farmers who are taxed by the system of modules and another 650 million in direct aid to the sector to alleviate the cost of energy and fertilizers.
600 million direct
On this occasion, direct aid to farmers and ranchers amounted to 636 million euros in the face of losses due to the drought, in addition to around 100 million euros in fiscal and liquidity aid. In addition to subsidizing up to 70% of the cost of the insurance policies for the crops most affected by the lack of water, 355 million will be delivered to the meat and milk livestock sector as it is “one of the most affected”. For its part, 5 million euros are allocated to beekeeping, and an aid fund of 276.7 million is established that allows the Ministry of Planas to offer new subsidies when necessary depending on how the drought situation evolves.
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