The Bétera City Council has announced that it will return to the residents of the municipality a total of 3.7 million euros corresponding to the waste collection fee for the years 2024 and 2025. The refund will be made ex officio, so that the affected citizens will not have to submit any application or initiate any procedure to claim the amounts.
The Councilor for Finance, Manu Pérez, explained the decision adopted by the council and the different issues related to this tax, focusing especially on the procedure that will be followed to return the money.
An ex officio return without the need to file an application
One of the most important aspects of the municipal announcement is precisely the way in which the return will take place. According to the City Council, the procedure has been initiated on the initiative of the council itself and does not respond to any court order that obliges the local administration to carry out the return.
Thus, taxpayers will not have to submit individual requests to recover the amounts paid during the two affected years. The City Council itself will process the refund of the 3.7 million euros ex officio.
This circumstance seeks to simplify the process for residents, avoiding them having to go individually to the municipal administration to claim the corresponding amounts.
The waste tax and Law 7/2022
The City Council has also sought to contextualize the origin of the waste collection fee. The City Council points out that its collection derives from the obligations established by Law 7/2022, of April 8, on waste and contaminated soil for a circular economy, a state regulation that establishes obligations for city councils in relation to the financing of municipal waste management.
The issue of the fee has acquired special relevance in recent years, as it directly affects family economies and forces local administrations to adapt the management of their waste collection and treatment services to the new regulatory framework.
In this context, the Bétera City Council has now chosen to initiate the procedure that will allow the amounts collected corresponding to the years 2024 and 2025 to be returned.
Bétera will not charge the fee in 2026 or 2027
Along with the announcement of the refund, the council has made another decision that will directly affect the municipality's taxpayers: the residents of Bétera will not pay the waste collection fee during 2026 or 2027 , according to information provided by the City Council.
In this way, the announced measure has a double aspect. On the one hand, it involves the return of the amounts corresponding to the two previous years and, on the other, it implies that the fee will not be required during the following two years.
3.7 million euros that will return to the residents of Bétera
The overall figure announced makes this decision an economic measure of considerable magnitude for the municipality. In total, 3.7 million euros will be returned to taxpayers for amounts paid during 2024 and 2025.
The Bétera City Council especially insists that it is not necessary to submit any application to benefit from the refund, since the procedure will be managed ex officio by the municipal administration.
The Finance Councilor, Manu Pérez, has publicly explained the details of the decision and the issues related to the tax, a measure that will directly affect thousands of residents of Bétera and that eliminates, at least during 2026 and 2027, its collection in the municipality.
