The PSD accused the government this Monday of “dropping the mask” by only accepting that the IRS would be cut in 2024, the year of the European elections, classifying the budget as “a fallacy” that does not respond to the “real problems” in healthcare. , education or justice.
During the opening session of the PSD’s parliamentary days, it was Secretary General Hugo Soares who made the most political intervention, seeking to dismantle the idea that the party had not made a speech in light of the government’s 2024 state budget proposal. .
“The cut of the IRS is a kind of cut of the mask on the part of the party that governs the country: they said they did not support the cut. [proposta pelo PSD já para este ano] because they had no budget space. After all, it was not a budgetary problem, it was an electoral problem: they want to cut the IRS in the year of the European elections, without worrying about social issues in 2023,” he criticized.
The PSD leader classified it as “a fallacy” to say that this budget reduces taxes, “while it breaks records in terms of increasing the tax burden”.
“It is not being able to tell the truth to the Portuguese, it is blatant lying, in a less polite way. Reduce the IRS, but jump at the indirect taxes, which are blind and disproportionate,” stated he, while classifying it as “Unfortunate” is the announced increase in the Single Circulation Tax (IUC) for older vehicles as it “hits those who have the most problems”.
Hugo Soares also refused to withdraw a speech for the PSD for this budget for having “correct accounts”.
“So are we going to learn lessons about correct accounts from a party that has already bankrupted the country three times? (…) Correct accounts are the duty of every government,” he defended.
According to the Secretary General of the PSD, this budget does not “solve the problems of public schools and teachers’ careers”, the SNS or obstacles in the justice sector.
“This budget is very well-designed and incapable of solving people’s problems,” he said, noting that the government’s concern is “to understand that the PSD is talking about people’s real problems.”
After an interview with the Minister of Economy to Jornal de Negócios, in which Costa Silva admitted higher costs for the state at Efacec, the PSD leader challenged the Prime Minister, António Costa, to clarify whether this process, that nationalization and now reprivatization entailed, “will cost the Portuguese more money than expected”.
“Every time the government intervenes, every time the government extends its hand, there is always a consequence: the Portuguese people’s taxes go where they should not go, instead of to families,” he criticized.
Earlier, parliamentary leader Joaquim Miranda Sarmento again accused the government of “following the ideas of the PSD”, albeit “in a lame way”.
“We marked the public and political agenda when we said in mid-August that the main priority was downsizing the IRS,” he defended.
Miranda Sarmento reiterated the five priorities presented by the PSD the day before the government presented the budget proposal to Parliament, which include increasing revenues, productivity, health, housing and education measures, including the full recovery of teachers’ time services, at a rate of 20% per year.
“These trips are the ‘kick off’ [pontapé de saída] of budget work,” he said, promising to present more initiatives to build an alternative to the PS government.
The PSD’s parliamentary days run until Tuesday in the Assembly of the Republic under the motto “A social emergency program for the middle class”, the title the party gave to its priorities for the 2024 state budget, and end on Tuesday. President, Luís Montenegro.
Source: DN
