In the second half of last month approximately 500 hairdressers came out in protest over the new crippling IVA rate. The demonstration took place outside the Provincial Hacienda offices in the city of Granada.

When in September 2012 the Central Government raised the IVA on having your hair done from 8% to 21% they drove many small hair salons out of business and others into working black.

It was a disastrous move made by a conservative government that had bitterly criticised the previous socialist government for raising the general IVA rate from 16% to 18%…

Chairman of the Asociación de Peluqueros de Granada, Jesús Rodríguez, pointed out that 30% of the hairdressers who closed down, unable to cope with the rise in costs (electricity) and the loss of customers, are now operating clandestinely from home.

“Costs have gone up 165%, yet we have been forced to maintain the same prices for the last two years – we can’t go on like this,” lamented one hairdresser from Maracena.

The Asociación de Peluqueros de Granadais are organising another protest in Granada outside the Subdelegación del Gobierno on the 24th of March – visit their facebook page for more info.

(News: Metropolitan Area, Granada, Andalucia