“Retirees are earning zero with this proposal compared to what was in the law,” PSD Vice-President António Leitão Amaro told journalists at the party’s national headquarters after the prime minister offered the aid package to the families receiving the extraordinary Council of ministers approved today to mitigate the impact of the rising cost of living on income.
The Social Democratic leader disputed that the plan presented by the government today means “putting families first”, and reiterated that the response of the socialist executive “came very late” and delayed in connection with the social emergency proposals. of the PSD.
“We have a government that is acting late, doing today what it could have done many months ago and much later than what the PSD has proposed since May. This shows that it puts tax collection first,” he criticized.
The vice president of the PSD believed that the measures presented by the government today “follow the concept of the PSD’s emergency program”, with some differences in “method”, such as making one-off payments instead of monthly, such as defended the Social Democrats.
For this reason, he opined, “it would be absurd for the PSD to say that everything is wrong” in the government’s program, noting that in many respects it was “in the wake of social-democratic proposals”, although in a “late response”.
“But the great news we have received today is an illusion. What the Prime Minister said to pensioners is that they are not getting a raise compared to what the law provided, they are starting to pay now so that next year they will pay less than should,” insisted.
Leitão Amaro pointed out that in the social emergency program defended by the PSD, pensioners with a lower pension would receive 40 euros per month until the end of the year and from January “the increase provided for by the law”, depending on the value of inflation and economic growth.
The Prime Minister announced today that in October retirees will receive an additional payment equivalent to half-board and, from January, an increase of between 4.43% and 3.53%, depending on the value of their pension.
António Leitão Amaro also regretted that the government did not follow the PSD’s proposal to reduce VAT to a reduced rate of 6% for energy in general – including gas and fuels – and limited its proposal for a tax cut to electricity.
“The government has decided not to protect those who consume gas and fuels,” he lamented.
When asked whether the aid of EUR 125, which will be paid in October to all citizens who earn up to EUR 2,700 gross per month, is not more ambitious than the PSD’s proposal, the ‘deputy’ social democrat emphasized that for the lowest salaries, low, the party proposed a support of 40 euros per month for four months, as well as a lowering of the IRS for the middle class, an increase in child benefits and a general reduction in VAT on energy.
Regarding the global value of the aid package – which the prime minister said was 2.4 billion euros, while that of the PSD is about 1.5 billion euros – Leitão Amaro said that “the prime minister speaks in different numbers”, of which some have already been mentioned. challenged in the past by the UTAO.
“And what the Prime Minister does is common for those who believe there are no limits to tax collection: calculate what more they could have asked for if they had kept taxes even higher. That’s not giving money back to the Portuguese, it’s the state to to moderate his appetite for tax collection,” he added.
When asked whether the PSD agrees with the ‘brake’ on rent increases, he said he wanted to know the details of the measure, but felt that the announced tax compensation for landlords is “generally correct”.
Among the measures announced today, there is a brake on the increase in rents in 2023, limiting the increase to 2%, accompanied by a tax aspect to mitigate the impact of the measure on landlords.
According to the communiqué of this meeting of the Council of Ministers, one of the measures adopted today is also “the grant to all families, regardless of income, of an extraordinary payment of EUR 50 for each descendant up to 24 years of age living in “, the “extension of the validity until the end of the year of the suspension of the carbon tax increase, the return to citizens of the additional VAT revenues and the reduction of the ISP”, and allowing the return of some of the natural gas customers to the regulated market.
The government has also mandated “freeze prices for public transport tickets and tickets at CP during 2023, ensuring appropriate compensation for this company and the transport authorities”.
Source: DN
