The plenary session of Calpe Town Council has finally approved the modification of the ordinance regulating the rate of household rubbish collection with the votes against of the municipal groups of the Partido Popular and Defend Calpe.
The updating of the rubbish tax is carried out in accordance with the new state law on waste - in application of a European directive - which requires that waste management in each municipality is not in deficit, that is, that the municipalities have to collect with the rubbish tax 100% of the cost of the service.
For the modification of the ordinance, an economic-financial study was carried out to analyse the costs of the service and set the fee considering criteria of economic capacity and waste generation. The distribution of the fee has been carried out by creating nine Areas (based on the cadastral valuation).
The tax rate in each of the Areas is as follows:
Area 1-Pou Roig: 162,03€.
Area 2-Diseminados: 223,98€.
Area 3-Casco/Ensanche: 223,06€.
Area 4-Mascarat: 171,84€.
Area 5-Urbanisations: 235,15€.
Area 6-Manzanera 257,14€.
Area 7-Coastal Port: 176,85€.
Area 8-Coastal: 177,17€.
Area 9-Salinas 185,33€.
All commercial or industrial premises are exempt from the increase in the rate and a 95% discount is established for the family unit whose members, the declarant and spouse, are pensioners or retired persons, the discount must be requested with the corresponding accreditation.
Law 7/2022 of 8 April on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy, obliges all European Union member states to improve waste management and to legislate in such a way that those who pollute the most pay the most, so that the tax collected by local councils for the collection and treatment of solid urban waste is not in deficit.
The spokesman for Defendamos Calpe, Paco Quiles, has indicated that ‘Europe is not asking us to raise the price, it says that whoever generates more waste should pay more, you have not worked on this proposal. The fairest thing would have been to reduce the IBI to the residents. The chosen method is unfair because you focus on the economic capacity of the area where we live, but you forget about the generation of waste. This point required more effort on their part to make the rate fairer’.
Miguel Crespo, spokesman for the Popular Party, criticised the rubbish collection service ‘this tax is not well worked out, it punishes the citizens, the citizens are going to pay. 2.5 million more for the same service, they will pay more for the same thing. The European Commission points out that it is not forcing us to raise the rate, what it is asking of us is that the service be sustainable’.
The Compromís councillor and government spokesman, Ximo Perles, also stated that ‘I disagree with what the members of the opposition have said, it is about resolving an allegation that if it had not been presented, we would not even be here’.
Defendamos Calpe councillor Juan Manuel del Pino said ‘the opposition is taking advantage of the resolution of an allegation to repeat that this is a robbery, nobody likes to raise taxes and we have already justified it’.
The mayoress, Ana Sala, closed the speeches stating that ‘the popular group is trying to convey to the citizens that this is a tax heist, obviously citizens are going to pay more, this increase is not to the government's liking but I have already committed to modify the rate in 2025 so that the tax burden is less for those who recycle, I do not know how we are going to do it but we are already working to achieve it’.