Portugal is experiencing “budget suffocation” and “taxes must be lowered now”. The statements are from Luís Montenegro, president of the PSD, who again approached António Costa about cutting taxes.
“Portugal today has a fiscal suffocation for people, for families, for businesses, which has consequences (…). The government today has a surplus of tax revenues compared to what was already a lot, it was a record, what was foreseen in the budget,” he said.
He speaks in Mirandela, in the district of Bragança, where he is present on the occasion of the initiative feel Portugal, Luís Montenegro defended that “there are conditions to cut taxes for the middle class, there are conditions for young people up to 35 years old to pay a third of the IRS they pay today”There are conditions for those who are more productive to be able to get that performance, that merit back, without paying taxes or contributions on productivity bonuses.”
Therefore, the leader of the largest opposition party left a challenge to the prime minister: “Let’s be right here. There are conditions to lower the IRS this year, 2023. It is not waiting for the State Budget (OE) to make flowers with the OE PowerPoint. There is already a surplus this year. Doctor António Costa must answer the question of whether or not the tax authorities should be reduced this year.”
Using the argument of the government and António Costa, who has already reiterated on several occasions his openness to tax cuts, Luís Montenegro referred to the following: “One thing is availability, one thing is conversation, one thing is the PowerPoints that are presented “. “Another thing is that Portugal is breaking records every year. The tax record holder in Portugal has a face, is that of Antonio Costa. The tax record holder in Portugal has a party acronym: the PS. The tax record holder is this way of getting more and more people to earn minimum wage or just above minimum wage, bringing the country down,” he charged.
‘Minister has no authority’
In the same speech, Luís Montenegro also criticized governance in the agricultural sector.
At the end of the trip to the Vale de Madeiro dam, where he heard officials from the Association of Beneficiaries of the dam’s irrigation perimeter, the Social Democratic leader accused Minister Maria do Céu Antunes of having no authority in the agricultural sector.
“The minister of agriculture – this is not a personal criticism, it is a political one – has no authority in the sector. She is not respected. Time, dedication, to keep alive what is essential for the country.” he said.
Luis Montenegro He then launched “the challenge to the government to investigate this profound Portugal”. “These people who live here have exactly the same rights, also the same duties. They also pay taxes,” he stressed.
With Lusa
Source: DN
