Letter to the editor. Introduce different VAT levels to lower the price on useful food

My suggestion to handle the high food prices in Sweden is to take after a country like Italy and introduce a differentiated scale of VAT rates for different foods, based on the necessity of food for consumers.

I have personal experience with Italy, where I live some parts of the year. There you apply a three -part VAT scale that is based on how necessary and/or useful foods are for consumers.

The differentiated VAT amounts provide both a positive distribution policy effect and a control towards more useful foods. The lowest VAT (IVA in Italian) is 4 percent, in exceptional cases 5 percent, and it is placed on basic foods such as bread, fruits and vegetables.

VAT in the middle layer Located at 10 percent and it is placed on some luxurious foods and processed food. The highest VAT rate is 22 percent and it is placed on unnecessary and/or useless products such as wine, beer and soft drinks.

If Sweden were to introduce a similar system of differentiated VAT rates, it would initially pose certain restructuring problems. Not least, there will be debate about what criteria and such classification of food and differentiation of mothers would follow. ´

However, if you follow the simplest possible principles for such food classification and VAT differentiation, the restructuring problems need not be too difficult to handle. Italy could serve as a good role model, and there are probably other countries' similar systems that we could also learn from here in Sweden.

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