The Liberal Initiative (IL) this Thursday criticized the government’s “trick” by backing 125 euros that returns a “crumb of what has been collected in taxes over the year”, and pushed for tax relief proposals already in place. included in the state budget.
On the day when the aid of 125 euros began to be paid to holders of incomes up to 2700 euros gross per month, IL deputy Rui Rocha was in the center of Lisbon handing out what he called “Costa’s Annual Raffle, The Lottery That’s a Bad Bet” to criticize this government measure.
“We are talking about a one-time thing, a crumb compared to the tax efforts demanded of the Portuguese throughout the year”condemned the deputy in statements to the agency Lusa and considered it a “propaganda measure” by the PS board.
Recalling that this aid was part of a package that also included an advance measure for pensioners and a measure to reduce VAT on electricity, the Liberal defended that these measures are “three tricks”.
“In the case of this single delivery of 125 euros in the month of October, we understand that this returns a small part, a crumb of what was collected in taxes during the year, a year with an absolutely extraordinary tax collection and in in that sense that there was an obvious tax increase, largely due to inflation as we know, but in fact there was an absolutely extraordinary tax collection”he explained.
For IL, “It would make much more sense to cut taxes, namely the IRS” as the party proposed in the 2022 state budget that would “enable families to make their choices”.
“What we think is that paternalism makes no sense in these matters. The money belongs to people, not the state, not António Costa, and therefore, if there was an abnormal situation of extraordinary tax collection, what would have made sense to IRS from the time of entry into force of the OE2022″he emphasized.
When asked about the liberal proposals for the state budget for 2023, Rui Rocha expected there will be “certainly proposals for tax relief, namely at the level of lowering the IRS”.
“And we will also have tax credits on energy VAT issues, VAT on food”anticipated, these cyclical measures to respond to the escalation of inflation.
According to Rui Rocha, this kind of support, such as the €125, makes sense for people “with very low or no income”, similar to what Europe is doing.
“The example of the flyers we distributed today in the center of Lisbon was the case of a single holder, who has an average income in Portugal, who would deliver 7800 euros in various taxes to the state during the year and who gets now 125 euros”, illustrated.
Despite the low average salaries in Portugal, the Liberal MEP said: “People who earn 2700 euros gross in Portugal, given the Portuguese reality, do not need help of 125 euros”.
“What they need is for the state not to take too much tax money from them over time and then they can manage the fruits of their labor and make their investment, savings and consumption choices”said.
Source: DN
