Qualitaly_117

JUN. JUL. 2020 V customer’s smartphone temperature # # sidewalks, pedestrian streets, riverside, open air catering is perceived as safer ______________________________ AT PAGE 18 IN DEPTH Public land occupation fee. Mirage or reality? The Relaunch Decree of 18 May last provides for the exemption of Cosap and Tosap until 1 November 2020. Bar and restaurant owners ask for an extension until the end of 2021. by Alessandro Vergallo In recent years, many Italian cities have organised themselves to enhance and revive outdoor spaces, taking advantage of the seasons unlike any previously. A necessity also dictated by the desire to be together with people enjoying the possibility to stay outside (a square, a tree-lined street, nearby monuments) and that allows us to eat and drink in the outdoor area or under umbrellas without feeling hot or cold, thanks to new technologies designed specifically for the outdoors. Many activities, especially bars and restaurants, located near public gardens, squares or tree-lined avenues, are favoured because they have areas where you can place tables and chairs. Others, on the other hand, are penalised because they are located in rather busy areas, where it is difficult, or even impossible, to set up corners to eat a sandwich or have a drink. A disparity that should be remedied as soon as possible by both the Government and the local authorities. Of course, it is essential the support of entrepreneurs, who are obliged to respect the urban planning rules in the short and long term. Now that people travel more often by bicycle or prefer to move on foot,” says Alfredo Zini, President of Confcommercio’s historic business club and owner of the Al Tronco Restaurant in Milan, “I think it’s the right time to change commercial and urban planning. Less ‘stressed’ mobility would favour the redesign and expansion of areas for public use, from which residents could benefit: one among many, the safety of areas that are particularly crowded and at risk such as, for example, in Milan, the Navigli and Corso Como. By diversifying and expanding the semi-peripheral areas of the cities, new development opportunities can be created for some areas that could also have an important economic interest from the real estate point of view, a bit like what is happening on the island (Garibaldi area) and in Lambrate in the cosmopolitan capital of Lombardy”. Among the various measures of the Relaunch Decree of last May 18, the exemptions from the payment of the tax for the occupation of public spaces and areas (TOSAP) and the fee for the occupation of public spaces and areas (COSAP) for companies related to catering and tourism until 1 November. The aim is to support the above activities and offer them a relaunch opportunity them after having been severely damaged by the pandemic which, in its negativity, has raised one of the most long-standing problems in our country: bureaucracy. At last, bar and restaurant owners will no longer have to sign the cumbersome and dusty paperwork and wait for the improbable and exhausting approvals from the various competent bodies to obtain a simple concession to occupy public land or extend the areas already granted. Today everything is simpler, all you need to do is send an electronic application to the Municipality, attaching only the plan, without the payment of the vignette. “Before the pandemic broke out, in order to obtain a few square meters of public land, it was necessary to wait for the approval of the Municipality first, then that of the landscape commission and finally, that of the superintendence,” says Nicola Pertuso, entrepreneur and provincial President FIPE Bari-Bat and member of the FIPE National Board of Directors. “A crazy process that over the years has annihilated many business ideas”. Giving more public space to bars and restaurants, in this particularly historical moment, is like offering a breath of fresh air to their managers. “For me not having to pay the Tosap until next December,” says Antonio Torre, manager of the historic restaurant La Torre di Merlino in Lecce, “ is really a relief, because at the moment, if they had not provided the exemption, for the current year, I would have had to pay about 20/25 thousand euros just for the use of the square where my tables are located. That bars and restaurants do not have to pay Tosap and Cosap is now a certainty. In this area, each municipality adopts different fiscal measures that are a problem for all operators. “To avoid discriminating situations,” explains Aldo Cursano, President of the Italian Federation of Public Exercises in Tuscany and Vice President of Fipe/Confcommercio Nazionale, “a single criterion must be found, regulated at national level, establishing the same methods and terms for all. Both on time and concessions, real conflicts are being created that do not help companies, many of which are in crisis if not on the verge of bankruptcy”. Catering operators are clamouring for the Government to be exempt from taxes on the occupation of public land at least until the end of 2021, to avoid the definitive closure of their premises. “Maybe they didn’t realise that there are many of us who have a mortgage on our shoulders and that the debts increase dramatically, month after month,” says Luca Capasa, owner of the Tony Bar Bistrot in Lecce. “Having reopened in these conditions does not help us to pay them off. I think it’s really necessary to extend the exemption of Tosap and other similar taxes at least until the end of next year. Every city has its own characteristics, its own habits. Only the local administrations know their potential