The Court found shortcomings in IVAucher that wrongly benefited 19,289 consumers, who received payments in the order of 446 thousand euros. The fact happened due to an “error in the definition of the treatment to be given to credit notes in the calculation of the potential benefit of each consumer”.
In the audit, the Court considers that the government’s program – to support the Portuguese and encourage consumption in the hotel and catering industry, catering and catering, following the forced confinement in the context of the covid-19 pandemic – has not met the expectations met.
With the IVAucher taking place, the TdC says “four changes to the terms of membership and seven to the privacy policy were necessary”, to “reflect on the specifics of the revised model”. All these restrictions meant that 63,040 consumers who had already joined the program did not accept the new terms, because they could not use the €1.8 million benefit they had already earned on their first purchases.
The TdC believes that the program was not fully understood by consumers. And this is because, in addition to poor adherence, 21% of those who continued on to the initiative did not make any purchases that would serve to accumulate value for a discount on the second purchase. At the same time, 11% of those who had already built up an advantage never used it.
On the merchant side, the weak participation can be explained by the “reduced level of disclosure”. The TdC emphasizes that the unveiling of the new membership terms took place “in the last week of September, so the program started when only half of the total number of traders adhered to it”. This despite the fact that the associations representing the traders have spoken out in favor of IVAucher.
The TdC concludes that IVAucher’s poor compliance stems from several “weaknesses”, which it identifies in that aid program’s evaluation report. Thus, the Court explains, only 9499 merchants took part in the programme, representing 17% of the national total, and on the consumer side, the number of adherents reached 1.5 million, equivalent to half of the total number they bought. the designated sectors.
The TdC says that “the benefits paid, which totaled EUR 38 million, represent less than half of the value accumulated for this purpose and 20% of the value provided for in the state budget”.
“illegal” change
As the Court of Auditors indicates in the study released today, the IVAucher initially consisted of a direct discount of up to 50% on purchases in the hospitality, culture and catering industry. “However, it was eventually operationalized in the form of a refundable benefit up to two days after use, based on an illegal change because it was made through a regulatory decision.”
That body says that while it was possible to overcome the difficulties “caused by the restrictions on the use of the interbank clearing system”, it had no impact on the acquisition of services.
In this sense, the Court identified three consequences: the decrease in the number of merchants joining IVAucher, as “an explicit entry procedure” was required; led to a higher number of interactions and processing by member banks and the entity handling support operations, and to a higher risk of error.
The program gave consumers the opportunity to accumulate for three months the amount corresponding to VAT on purchases in the accommodation, culture and hospitality sector and then use that amount for other purchases, albeit in the same sectors.
More billing
Despite everything, according to the investigation the Court carried out into the government initiative, the IVAucher – which took place between June and December 2021 – was “timely and revenue-boosting”. As detailed by the body that oversees the legality of government spending by the state, “merchants in the hospitality industry recorded a 7% increase in the last quarter of 2021,” compared to the previous quarter and unlike those merchants who did did not participate in the measure.
The Court notes that the audit was conducted when the government program had already ended, but draws attention to the fact that IVAucher was conducted without defined objectives or performance indicators, conditions that the judges understand limit the assessment of the measure.
Source: DN
