The Liberal Initiative accused the PS on Thursday of sacrificing “the thousand euros” and wanting to “maintain a dependent lower middle class”, while the Left Bloc believed the government gives “Black Friday discounts” to companies.
After being defeated in Wednesday’s vote, the Liberal initiative today called on the plenary to introduce a proposal intended to create a two-tier IRS system — with the first tier subject to a IRS rate of 14.5% and the second of 48% – -, failed again in plenary, with IL’s favorable vote, Chega abstained, and votes against from all other parties.
In the debate leading up to the vote, IL deputy Carlos Guimarães Pinto underlined that next year the state will have 111 billion euros in revenue, that is, “11 thousand euros for every Portuguese adult, child or elderly person”.
“There is 30 billion euros more turnover than six years ago. What we proposed was that one-tenth of this increase go into the pockets of the people who earn half our salary as deputies. We are talking about the thousand euristas, people who earn around 1,000 euros, 800, 900, 1,100, 1,200, 1,300 euros,” he said.
Guimarães Pinto accused the PS government of refusing to cut “in TAP’s funding”, “in the hundreds of millions it puts into the bank” or in the “useless obelisks and monuments it builds around”, but the “thousand eurists” to scrap “the trip they dream of all year round” or “their bank payment and being homeless”.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect anything else from the PS, because the PS wants to keep a lower middle class dependent on waiting for the 125 euros that the prime minister will give them one day. They like that,” he accused.
Guimarães Pinto criticized all parties for ‘failing’ the IL’s proposal and began addressing the Social Democratic deputies, challenging them to look at the European People’s Party (PPE) – the European political family to which the PSD belongs — and try to “find a PPE government that taxes the way you accept the PS tax”.
“And Chega, who also did not approve this measure, ask the police officers out there who earn a thousand euros that you approve subsidies, but don’t let them have another 50 euros not in subsidies, but money that is theirs,” he accused.
As for the parties on the left, the IL deputy asked the PCP to ask the “workers who earn 900, 1,000, 1,500 euros if they don’t need these 50 or 100 euros” and accused the BE of only “a bankrupt elite ” who liked to live in the center of Lisbon”.
When he intervened, Chega leader André Ventura said he was surprised that Carlos Guimarães Pinto had decided to speak about the police, accusing IL, PSD and PS of “systematically opposing all or almost all proposals” of Chega about increases in revenue from the security forces or from the improvement of police stations.
On the IRS, Ventura criticized the PS for “exploding the middle class even more,” arguing that the scales update, “so no money is lost in the face of inflation,” should be 18% and not 5.1% as proposed by the government.
In turn, the Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs, António Mendonça Mendes, accused Carlos Guimarães Pinto of being like “that soldier who was in the platoon: everyone marched the same way, and he was the only one who marched wrong, thinking that the others were wrong”.
“I will also tell you about the ‘thousand eurists’: with the Young Tax Office of this State Budget, 1,000 eurists earn four salaries with the tax reduction, sir at 59%, Mr Deputy”, he defended.
Bloco de Esquerda deputy Mariana Mortágua believed that the IL proposal is an “unfair measure, because any flat rate is always unfair”, but also criticized the executive, as “failing to update the IRS levels to inflation determines that all workers have another loss of income”.
Mariana Mortágua also said that “the measure that removes the deadline for deducting tax losses from the IRS, also known as a big tax exemption for the largest companies, is symbolic of the government’s choices in the state budget”.
“At the same time as confirming the real reduction in wages of all workers, while at the same time the government is cutting pensioners’ rights (…), it is offering the largest companies a real ‘Black Friday’ discount. “, he accused.
Source: DN
