The Portuguese Government adopted this Thursday in the Council of Ministers a bill aimed at taxing the “excess profits” of the energy and food distribution sectors, in order to moderate the impact of inflation.
In his press release, the socialist executive did not specify at what rate these “temporary solidarity contributions” will be charged.
After the agreement reached at the European level to return part of the “super profits” of energy producers to homes and companies in the face of the explosion of bills, Lisbon had indicated that it intended to tax up to at least 33% the “extraordinary profits” of the crude oil, natural gas, coal and refining sectors. Since then, the Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, had raised the possibility of extending this contribution to food distribution companies.
Inflation exceeds 10%
“The bill that we are going to present for the taxation of extraordinary profits concerns a group of companies that not only belong to the energy sector, but also to the distribution sector, and that must pay for the profits obtained unjustifiably by This is an inflation crisis”, he declared at the end of October, during a parliamentary debate on the 2023 budget.
The text approved this Thursday, and which will be put to a vote by Parliament, where the Socialists have an absolute majority, “intends to alleviate the direct economic effects generated by the high prices applied by these sectors on the budgets of public institutions, consumers and companies” .
Consumer prices in Portugal continued to rise by 10.1% year-on-year in October, the biggest rise since May 1992, according to data published last week by the National Institute of Statistics.
Source: BFM TV
