There’s no week that goes by without some town council being investigated for illicit contracts for the disposal of waste materials. Refuse is the black gold of the parties, their piggy bank. In effect, they are similar to each other. The most odious thing is the ‘couldn’t-care-less’ attitude of the parties in relation to the verdicts when they are in favour of the citizens, even in the case of rubbish. The collection of rubbish should be at zero-profit for the municipalities given that it is an essential social service, but that’s not how it happens. Rubbish is quoted on the Stock Exchange and it provides rich salaries to the directors appointed by the parties. The latest bit of filth (here our topic is the relation of parties with rubbish … ) is the application of IVA {sales tax} at 10% in spite of the contrary opinion from the Constitutional Court that has ordered the reimbursement of IVA paid by the users over the last few years. IVA cannot be paid on a tax and the disposal of rubbish is considered to be that. The cost of the disposal of rubbish should come close to zero with policies of recycling and the reduction of packaging, but the parties, to use a metaphoric term, ‘se ne fottono’ {they don’t care about it} . “Last year a verdict by the Constitutional Court decreed that 10% IVA on the utility bill for refuse collection was illegitimate and that it had to be reimbursed. The parliament of the ‘appointed’ by the party secretaries, without a single voice opposing, decided to take no notice with legal decree number 78 dated 31 May 2010 , converted into law number 122 dated 30 July 2010. With the usual word play, the decree made clear “that the ‘Tariffa di Igiene Ambientale’ {Tariff for Environmental Hygiene} is not a tax, so by law, IVA (at 10%) has to be applied to the price of the service” A joke turned into reality, that the 5 Star MoVement denounced on 22 April 2010 with the town councillor of Reggio Emilia, Matteo Olivieri.
The parties of the ‘pretend Opposition’ voted against the Tremonti decree. The Opposition is just superficial, because otherwise why did it not raise any voice against the argument related to the illegitimacy of IVA at 10% on the rubbish collection tax and on the failure to reimburse the money paid in the past by the citizens? The reason is easy to say. All the parties appoint their men inside the former municipal companies like Hera Spa and the recently created Iren Spa. When you pay an extra 10% on the utility bill and what you have already paid isn’t reimbursed, you’ll know who to thank: PDL, Lega and the ‘pretend Opposition’”. Andrea Defranceschi and Giovanni Favia, regional councillors with 5 Star Movement in Emilia Romagna