On Wednesday, the Brussel-Capital Region announced they would be annulling the move by the municipality of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean to enforce a tax of €5,600 per self-scanning cash register brought in to protect supermarket workers' jobs.
Catherine Moureaux (PS), the Mayor of Molenbeek, is considering whether to appeal the recent annulment of her municipality's tax on self-scan checkouts in supermarkets by the Region of Brussels-Capital.
In July, news came out that Molenbeek was taxing the use of self-checkouts in supermarkets, which earned them €5,600 per cash register.
The tax was later suspended by Bernard Clerfayt (DéFI), the Brussels Minister for Local Government, as he viewed it as contrary to regional policy and as slowing down economic recovery.
However, the municipality was allowed to submit a new tax proposal, which was once again refused on Wednesday for being too similar to the previous one.
The municipal council of Molenbeek defended the tax by lauding its importance in carrying out the municipality's political tasks, and further claimed that self-scans would destroy jobs.
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The Mayor of Molenbeek, Catherine Moureaux went one step further and criticised the decision on tTwitter by stating that "large groups of workers know just how dehumanising these checkouts are." She added that they are also aware of "the excess profits they generate and the pressure which is puts on cashier's working conditions."
To which Clerfayt responded that customers still "have the choice of going to traditional checkouts if they want human contact," and declared that "we have not witnessed a decline in in-store employment with the installation of self-scanners."
This debate is part of a larger discourse on the taxation of artificial intelligence, which will have to be deepened between different levels of power the companies they affect, stated Belga News Agency.
They also asked Catherine Moureaux if she planned to appeal the tax's annulment, to which she responded that the thought had crossed her mind, "we have 60 days to decide," she concluded.
