Following the leadership of the PSD during the time of Rui Rio – which he criticized so much – the current leadership of the Social Democrats continues without saying how they will generally vote on the proposed law with the state budget for next year (OE2024).
When asked on Tuesday whether the cut in the IRS does not go further than what the PSD had already proposed (a tax cut of 1,200 million euros this year), the leader of the Social Democratic Bank, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, said that the executive “comes in tow” of his party.
He therefore understood that he was “welcomed that the government has followed the PSD’s proposal to reduce the IRS”. But it is quickly added: “What is not understandable – in addition to the reaction that the PS had in August, criticizing the PSD proposal as impossible and irresponsible – is the reason why the government is not reducing in 2023, given the excess tax revenue expected to charge more than initially planned.”
“The PS government’s budgets made us get used to the fact that the tax burden, at least on paper, was reduced. Once implementation was completed, it was found to have increased. Now the tax burden on paper is no longer even reduced.”
The PSD continues without saying how it will vote (“it is a decision that is up to management”), but Miranda Sarmento puts forward considerations that point to the usual voting direction: against. “The PSD considers this budget – in line with the previous one – as a budget that does not serve the interests of the Portuguese and the country,” he stated. Meanwhile, emphasizing that the proposed reduction of the IRS (to the fifth bracket) does not mislead another fact: a new general increase in the tax burden (from 24.9% of GDP to 25.2%). “The PS government’s budgets made us get used to the fact that the tax burden, at least on paper, was reduced. Once implementation was completed, it was found to have increased. Now the tax burden on paper is no longer even reduced.”
The PSD does not (yet) want to say how it will vote, but the Liberal Initiative has already done so. He will vote against, because “it is once again a document without ambition and without strategic vision that does not open any horizon of hope for the Portuguese, nor contribute to solving their essential problems” and “does not represent economic growth for the Portuguese .” country” and it also does not offer “solutions to the collapse of public services,” party chairman Rui Rocha wrote on the X Network. André Ventura, from Chega, said the proposed OE2024 it has “patches” and is “electoralist”.
On the left, the PCP has already announced that it will vote against, because OE2024 will “make life worse” for the Portuguese. BE, through Pedro Filipe Soares, considered that OE2022 does not meet the needs of the country or the difficulties of the Portuguese.
As for PAN’s Inês Sousa Real, she called the government’s proposal an “illusion.” At the same time, Rui Tavares from Livre said the government must go further in responding to the social emergency. In OE2023, PAN and Livre abstained. The other opposition parties voted against. The proposal was only approved with the positive vote of the PS majority.
Source: DN
