Luanda - The Draft Law that amends the Value Added Tax (VAT) Code from 14 to 5 percent was approved on Thursday by 106 votes in favor, zero against and 71 abstentions from the UNITA parliamentary group, at the 2nd Ordinary Plenary Meeting of the National Assembly.
The Executive reduced the Value Added Tax (VAT) by 5 percent for widely consumed food products, against the 7 percent of the initial proposal.
Among the widely consumed food products proposed by the Executive, in the VAT package, 5 percent include meat and offal of the bovine, pork, sheep and goat species, poultry (except turkey and goose), fish (except shark, salmon and cod), milk, yogurt and butter or daisy.
The package also includes eggs, edible vegetables or vegetables, fruit, tea, cereals, maize and wheat flour, cooking oil, sugar, pasta, bread and other pastries, water and salt, among others.
The MPLA parliamentary group said it voted in favor of the proposed VAT amendment, as it understands that it unequivocally reflects the commitment to solve the people's problems.
'We voted in favour because we understand that this proposal includes a set of benefits that aim to normalise the collection of the various scattered taxes that deal with VAT, as well as a set of stimuli to the economy that will allow the State to remain functional', said deputy Kilamba Van-Dúnem.
For his part, deputy Florêncio Camjamba, from UNITA, justified his party's abstention on the proposal in question, because he believes that taxing primary foods at a rate of 5 percent “is an ineffective measure that does not improve the population's access to basic basket goods and consequently does not solve the current state of generalized hunger”.
The UNITA parliamentary group defends zero VAT for basic basket goods.
The Minister of Finance, Vera Daves, clarified that a VAT below zero percent is unfeasible because the final effect is to increase the prices of products and not reduce them.
The Legislative initiative of the President of the Republic, as Head of the Executive Power, aims to adapt it to the reality of the current economic and social context of the country to the economic and financial challenges faced by families and companies.
In the proposal, the province of Cabinda will have a single VAT incidence rate, in the order of 1%, taking into account the Special Regime in force in that region, because of the geographical discontinuity.
The Draft Law amending the Value Added Tax (VAT) Code was requested in urgent proceedings by the President of the Republic, as Head of the Executive Power, under the terms of the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly. DC/AC/DOJ
