The Ministry of Industry and Trade supported the bill on the abolition of VAT for foodsharing

The Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia supports the initiative to abolish VAT on foodsharing (gratuitous transfer of expired food to needy people) for retailers. About it declared Secretary of State – Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Viktor Evtukhov.

“We don’t know yet when exactly the project will be considered, but I think we will support it. Because otherwise, business entities, agents, simply do not have any economic benefit in order to rationally handle these goods,” the deputy minister said in an interview with TASS.

Such an initiative, according to Yevtukhov, will help resolve humanitarian issues and the problems of excessive accumulation of waste.

June 28 Izvestia reportedthat the Liberal Democratic Party proposed a draft law to abolish VAT on products and bottled water with an expiring shelf life, provided that they are handed over to the population free of charge.

The explanatory note states that the annual loss of food in the Russian Federation is about a fifth of the volume of their production. The authors of the initiative explained that an effective measure in such a situation could be the gratuitous transfer of products to the population. However, this is unprofitable for retail chains, since they have the right not to pay VAT only on discarded expired products.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade approved the idea of ​​developing food sharing in the summer of 2022. Then the idea was also evaluated by the Ministry of Economic Development. Already in September of the same year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported that the department was developing legislative solutions for the development of this program together with retailers.