Ministry of Health has already indicated healthy foods for VAT exemption

The Ministry of Health has already given the Ministry of Finance guidelines to help define the list of about 30 foods that will be exempt from VAT, between April and October.

The document, which was drawn up with the help of specialists from the Directorate-General for Health and nutritionists, defines which are the healthy food groups, but does not identify exactly which products should have zero VAT.

In practice, the healthy food groups on the food wheel are pointed out, namely fruit, vegetables, legumes, cereals and dairy products.

Among meats, differences in the nutritional value of white meats compared to red meats are indicated. As with fruit, there are variations between seasonal and imported fruit. As JN has already reported, one of the products that will integrate the basket is milk.

The list of foods considered essential, which is being defined between the Government, producers – represented by the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal -, and food retail – represented by the Portuguese Association of Distribution Companies -, should be known this week.

Most products on the table currently have 6% VAT and it is known that the Government’s intention is to affect the elimination of VAT on food products whose price has increased the most. It should be noted that, in one year, according to monitoring by Deco Proteste, the price of an essential basket rose from 192.28 euros to 226.15 euros.

The temporary reduction of VAT to zero will, according to the Government, have an estimated budgetary impact of €410 million in loss of revenue for the State.