Today, FACUA-Consumers in Action held a press conference in which they explained what they consider to be a joke, in which the Government sets the maximum price of surgical masks at 72 cents per unit, when in the market they can be obtained for a price that ranges between 20 and 50 cents per unit in large stores and on the Internet at lower prices depending on the quantity you buy.
Note from FACUA
According to the Ministry of Health, this change in the maximum price has been made after “reviewing the current market prices of surgical masks in Spain, both in large stores, as well as in pharmacies and online sales, in order to guarantee free competition below the maximum price set.”
In this regard, the association warns that this amount is above the vast majority of market prices, where masks can be found for amounts ranging from 20 to 50 cents, and stresses that, before the pandemic, national manufacturers supplied masks to distributors for 3 cents.
Similarly, FACUA recalls that it had already called on the Government to set the price of surgical masks at 10 cents. “Certain manufacturers, intermediaries and large establishments are engaging in enormous speculation by applying disproportionate profit margins,” criticised the association’s secretary general, Rubén Sánchez.
This reduction in the maximum price is accompanied by the reduction in VAT applicable to masks from 21% to 4% announced by the Government on 11 November. A measure that FACUA considered insufficient if it was not accompanied by a drastic reduction in the maximum price, which ultimately did not occur.
