Jan van Aken, the leading candidate of the Left, advocates for the abolition of the value-added tax on consumer goods to combat rising prices.
“As immediate measures, the value-added tax on food, hygiene products, and public transportation should be reduced to zero” he told the newspapers of the “New Berlin Editorial Society”. To ensure that manufacturers and retailers pass the full tax cut on to consumers, the tax reduction should “obviously go hand in hand with price control”.
The proposal by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to reduce the value-added tax on food from the current seven to five percent is not enough, according to van Aken. “That’s not enough, but it’s going in the right direction.” The SPD, after all, had borrowed the idea from the Left: “Good copy from us again.” It remains unclear whether Scholz will actually implement his proposal. “I have significant doubts about that” van Aken said.