Many Municipalities in Granada are rebelling against the new refuse collection tax levied by Central Government.

This new tax, although brought in by the Central Government in 2023, was soon ceded to the regional governments, which in our case is the Junta de Andalucia. However, the Junta passed on the responsibility to collect the tax to the provincial councils.

Some, the smaller ones, have pointed out that they just do not have the money for this extra expense, whereas others have gone a step further and have taken the affair to court, if only to gain time.

The stated objective is to encourage recycling by charging more for unseparated rubbish that ends up in the rubbish-collection plants for sorting.

So how does it work? The Provincial Council of Granada charges each municipality for the tonnage that they put through the rubbish plants. In otherwords, separate rubbish put in the different coloured bins, does not accrue this extra tax.

Trouble is, the new tax that came in last year didn’t give town councils time enough to get it into the yearly budget for the next year. At present they are paying 23 euros per tonne but this amount will increase by 15 euros per tonne.

Hence: 50 municipalities have appealed in order to avoid the tax, but the Provincial Council rejected these appeals leaving the town councils the option of pay up or sue them. Accordingly 31 town councils (29 governed by the PSOE and one by the PP, which is the City Hall) have taken the thing to court.

The City of Granada, for example, has to find 2.4m euros to pay the tax, which is why they are taking it to court. A small municipality would have to pay, on average, 2,500 euros, whereas a larger one like Motril, has to pay 590,000 euros

Armilla, Láchar, Calicasas, La Zubia, Molvízar, Domingo Pérez, Chauchina, Benamaurel and Huétor Tájar are just some of the town councils that have taken this legal option

Lastly, the Junta took 90m euros during 2023 for this concept, for which reason the rebels insist that the Junta reinvests this money on the existing recycling plants.

(News/Noticias: Granada, Andalucia)