The local government will bring the modification of the ordinance regulating the rate for household waste collection to tomorrow's plenary session after withdrawing it from last September's plenary session when an arithmetical and material error was detected in the calculation of the rate.
The updating of the waste 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 town council must not be loss-making, i.e. that the town councils must collect 100% of the cost of the service through the waste tax.
For the modification of the ordinance, an economic-financial study was carried out to analyse the costs of the service and set the fee taking into account criteria of economic capacity and waste generation. The distribution of the fee has been carried out by creating nine zones (based on the cadastral valuation).
The tax rate in each of the zones is as follows:
Zone 1-Pou Roig: 162,03€.
Zone 2-Diseminados: 223,98€.
Zone 3-Casco/Ensanche: 223,06€.
Zone 4-Mascarat: 171,84€.
Zone 5-Urbanisations: 235,15€.
Zone 6-Manzanera 257,14€.
Zone 7-Coastal Port: 176,85€.
Zone 8-Coastal: 177,17€.
Zone 9-Salinas 185,33€.
All commercial or industrial premises are exempt from the tax and a 95% discount is established for the family unit whose components, declarer and spouse, are pensioners or retired people, the discount must be requested with the corresponding accreditation.
The Mayoress of Calp, Ana Sala, has sent a letter to the residents in which she explains that the Law 7/2022 of 8 April on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy, obliges all member states of the European Union to improve waste management and to legislate so that those who pollute the most pay the most, so that the tax collected by the municipalities for the collection and treatment of solid urban waste is not in deficit.
Sala states in the letter that ‘We local councils are obliged to modify our by-laws in order to balance the fee collected and bring it into line with the real cost of the service. This council, like the rest of the councils in Spain, is obliged to update the rate, which can only be upwards, given the current collection deficit that we currently have for this concept due to the consequent increase in costs, which amounts to more than two and a half million euros.
In the last four years the tax burden on the people of Calpe has been maintained and even reduced. In 2019 the IBI was reduced by 5%, in 2022, the capital gains tax for inheritances was reduced to 95%, since 2021 the council does not charge tax for opening businesses and activities, nor for transfers or transfers of activities, thus facilitating the establishment of freelancers and companies.
We are committed, every year, to increase the amount allocated to subsidies, reaching a total amount of 600,000 euros in the 2024 budget. This is the philosophy of this government team, to do more with less, but at this time and, with regard to the waste tax, we have no alternative but to approve this provisional modification of the ordinance that makes the tax more expensive, being aware of what it means for everyone.
We have worked on the criteria and parameters so that the impact on the pockets of our citizens is as minimal as possible, assuming the commitment, once the provisional modification has been approved in order to comply with the law, to study it in depth so that the definitive ordinance is as fair as possible, taking into account the effort in the management and treatment of each waste product, giving bonuses and rewarding those who pollute less and therefore pay less’.