All the young people just coming of age who had planned their summer in the hope of having the 400 euros of the cultural bonus to go to concerts or any other cultural activity will have to change their plans. Or, at least, postpone them to after the summer.
Miquel Iceta confirmed this Thursday that the aid for the consumption of products subsidized by the Ministry of Culture will not come into force until the end of August, despite his department hoping to have his star promise ready in May or June.
«Before the summer we are going to have the call so that all the sectors that provide services can sign up. Just after the summer, when the bonus becomes effective, there will be many companies and possibilities of using the bonus”, Iceta said today at the presentation of the Spanish guest of honor program at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
“Administrative procedures have their difficulties and their guarantees. It is the first time we have done it, and we want to do it well," added the minister, to questions from the press. A few days ago, the order to convene the selection procedure for the entity that will manage the means of payment to the beneficiaries of the cultural bonus was published in the BOE.
Ten months have passed since the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, hastily announced, so that Vice President Yolanda Díaz would not get ahead of him, the star measure of Culture for this legislature: a program endowed with 200 million euros so that Around 500,000 young people who have turned 18 this year or will turn 18 can spend 400 euros on cultural products.
That amount was incorporated into the General State Budget for 2022, but the department that Iceta directs has already warned that its entry into force would still take a few months, until May or June. Today it has confirmed that it will still be delayed for at least another three months, with the aim that by October – a year after Sánchez's announcement – that 400-euro purse will already be operational.
In any case, Iceta recalled today that since it is launched, all young people who can benefit from it will have a year to use it. Those kids who these days are asking when the cultural bonus will be ready because "summer doesn't pay for itself" will have to wait for next year.
The cultural bonus will have caps depending on the products that you want to consume. There will be a maximum of 200 euros reserved for live arts, cultural heritage and audiovisual arts, which includes tickets and subscriptions for concerts, cinema or museums. Another maximum of 100 euros can be spent on physical cultural products, whether they are books, newspapers, video games or records. And the remaining 100 euros must be used for digital or online consumption.
Culture will not subsidize the acquisition of stationery products; curricular textbooks, whether printed or digital; computer and electronic equipment, software, hardware and consumables; art supplies; musical instruments; sports and bullfighting shows; fashion and gastronomy. The bonus will also not cover the purchase of products that have been rated X or pornographic.
