Since July 1, restaurants, cafes, bakeries and supermarkets that sell meals in single-use plastic containers have to charge customers a new fee of €0.30 + VAT, which amounts to €0.37 per container. . From 2023, this contribution will be extended to aluminum crates. Without viable alternatives, takeaway and home delivery businesses, which grew exponentially during the pandemic, will face severe penalties, warn the Associação da Hotelaria, Restauração e Similares de Portugal (AHRESP) and the National Association of Restaurants. .
“With the home delivery and drive-in modality, the customer has no alternative but to pay the fee as, due to the nature of these services, customers do not enter the establishments to order or collect their products, and therefore, it is impossible to use their own receivers,” reveals DN/Dinheiro Vivo, the general secretary of AHRESP, Ana Jacinto. From the perspective of PROVAR’s president, Daniel Serra, it is likely that “the tax will have a greater negative impact on entrepreneurs operating in the economic meal” or fast food segments. “For this, the value of the compensation or the purchase of more sustainable packaging ultimately outweighs the costs, which can lead to a drop in margins or an adjustment in the final price and to a decrease in sales,” he emphasizes. .
Source: DN
