The AMB approves the 7.5% fee to coordinate metropolitan SCRAP systems

The Metropolitan Council of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), in an ordinary session on October 27, 2026, has provisionally approved the imposition of the tax for the coordination, monitoring, and control services of the extended producer responsibility systems (SCRAP) and the fiscal ordinance that regulates it. The announcement is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Barcelona on October 30, 2026, with reference CVE 202610161771 and file 914385/26, and opens a public information period of 30 business days. If no claim is filed, the ordinance will be understood as definitively approved and its full text will be published in the same gazette, at which point it will enter into force.

The regulation is based on the competencies that articles 18.2 and 40.d) of Law 31/2010, of August 3, of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, attribute to the body, and on articles 20 to 27 of Royal Legislative Decree 2/2004, of March 5, which approves the Revised Text of the Law regulating Local Treasuries. The ordinance also invokes the fourth additional provision of Law 58/2003, of December 17, General Taxation Law, article 109 of Law 7/1985, of April 2, regulating the Bases of the Local Regime, and sectoral waste regulations.

The text is based on the framework agreements signed between the Waste Agency of Catalonia (ARC) and the SCRAPs: the AMB coordinates them and invoices on behalf of the adhered local bodies, and the new tax finances precisely this intermediation task. The document bears the signature of the secretary of the body, Mireia Grau Sadurní, dated October 28, 2026, and empowers the manager of the AMB to carry out the necessary actions to apply the ordinance.

Taxpayers: city councils and local bodies adhered via the AMB

Article 3 establishes who pays the tax: the bodies that have adhered, directly or by delegation of the city councils, through the AMB, to the framework agreements between the ARC and the SCRAPs, and that receive coordination, monitoring, control, and invoicing services from this metropolitan body. These are, therefore:

• City councils, including that of the capital, in the event that they delegate management.
• Local bodies and public law entities that join the system.
• Bodies that effectively receive the provision of the AMB, an explicit requirement for the obligation to contribute to arise.

Article 4 places the accrual of the tax at the moment when the SCRAPs or the AMB’s own facilities receive the waste collected by local bodies with delegated collection, as this reception is the basis for subsequent invoicing.

Service covered and quota: 7.5%, with an exception for Barcelona

The taxable event (article 2) covers the administrative, technical, and management services that the AMB provides for the direct benefit of the bodies incorporated into the system:

• Coordinate the technical and economic documentation that must be submitted to the SCRAP for invoicing.
• Handle invoicing through the corresponding platforms.
• Monitor collection data, improper waste, and service performance.
• Evaluate the evolution of collection indicators across the metropolitan area.
• Represent the municipalities in the monitoring commissions of the agreements.
• Collaborate with the municipality in the implementation of the Ecoembes Digital Waste System.

The fee (article 5) is a percentage of the taxable base of the invoices that the local entity issues to the AMB for selective collection services linked to the SCRAP:

• General flat rate of 7.5%.
• Reduced rate of 3.5% for the Barcelona City Council.

Collection by compensation and application calendar

Article 6 establishes that the tax is settled by the AMB based on the amount invoiced by the local entity and is made effective through the deduction of its amount from the sums that the AMB must pay to the taxable person for the same invoice that serves as the calculation base. Thus, the metropolitan entity will pay only the resulting balance; when deduction is not possible, the settlement will be paid in the form and terms determined by the AMB according to tax regulations.

The final provision states that the ordinance enters into force on the day of its publication in the Official Gazette of the Province of Barcelona, that it will begin to be applied on January 1, 2027, and that it will remain in force until it is expressly modified or repealed. Interested parties may examine the file and submit claims during the 30 business days of public information, which is also disseminated on the AMB notice board and in one of the most widely circulated newspapers in the province.

With this tax, the AMB closes the economic circuit between municipal collection and the funding provided by extended producer responsibility systems: city councils stop solely bearing the administrative burden of justifying and invoicing selective collection, but assume a cost of 7.5% on these revenues, which will be deducted directly from the payments they receive. The calendar is decisive for the budgetary planning of local entities, which will have to incorporate the new tax starting from the 2027 financial year.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Barcelona, October 30, 2026, section I (Local Administration) (official reference: CVE 202610161771).