In the Council of Ministers go-ahead for the renegotiation of the debts of agri-food companies and the transferable tax credit for expensive fuels
The Council of Ministers approved important measures against expensive energy and measures to support the sectors most affected by the Ukrainian crisis. Three, in particular, the measures of agricultural interest approved on the proposal of the Minister of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, Stefano Patuanelli.
The first provision provides for the renegotiation and restructuring of agricultural loans. In particular, for agricultural, fishing and aquaculture enterprises, the Government has established the possibility of renegotiating and restructuring existing loans and extending the relative residual repayment period up to 25 years. Furthermore, in compliance with the de minimis regime, ISMEA is authorized to provide a free guarantee in favor of farmers and fishermen. To this end, the Government has strengthened the public guarantee fund which has recently been revised in its operation, providing for the possibility of extending the guarantees up to 5 million euros for the individual beneficiary. This makes it possible to counter the liquidity crisis of agri-food companies connected to the exceptional increase in the costs of energy and raw materials.
The issue of profitability is at the center of the entire government decree which outlines measures in favor of all Italian companies, acting on fuel excise duties, tax credits, price monitoring and transparency measures, and the installment of energy bills, on public contracts, road transport, golden power and cybersecurity. Effective safeguards to protect Italian companies, with positive effects on agri-food companies, which are also recipients of specific measures.
The Fund for the development and support of agricultural, fishing and aquaculture enterprises already provided for by the budget law 35 is then increased by a further 2022 million euros. , through a contribution in the form of a tax credit for the purchase of fuel for agricultural and fishing enterprises. The extraordinary contribution is equal to 20 per cent of the expenditure incurred for the purchase of the fuel actually used in the first calendar quarter of the year 2022, within the limits established for state aid. The Government provides that the tax credit is also transferable by the beneficiary companies to other subjects, including credit institutions and other financial intermediaries.
Finally, the possibility of using digestate as a soil fertilizer is expanded. The proposal is necessary to encourage the use of vegetable by-products and processing waste from agri-food chains as fertilizer and to make up for the lack of chemicals following the Russian-Ukrainian crisis. This contributes to the spread of ecological practices and circular economy in the biogas production phase, to the reduction of the use of chemical fertilizers, to the increase of organic matter in the soils and to the limitation of production costs.