Chega’s president André Ventura wants to force companies in the energy sector with “extremely perverse profits” to reduce consumers’ electricity bills “by the same proportion”, a German-inspired proposal the party will table in parliament.
Speaking to journalists after his speech to close the parliamentary days, which ended this Monday in Setúbal, André Ventura said that, with regard to the discussion on taxing extraordinary profits of companies, Chega is “structurally opposed to new taxes in Portugal”, but admitted that the energy sector is “making extraordinarily perverse profits in light of the current circumstances”.
“Now we had two hypotheses here: the hypothesis that the PS and the left want, namely to tax these profits, but then we do not know how they will be channeled. We wanted a direct contribution, that is, these companies , if they profit have extraordinary costs compared to previous years, are obliged to reduce the bill in the same proportion,” he explained.
Chega’s leader promised to make a proposal to parliament “technically well made and studied in light of the German proposal”.
“Therefore, there is a direct contribution from those who have increased [os lucros] for what they will have to reduce in the bill and so we have a guarantee that the state will not use our money for other purposes,” he justified.
According to André Ventura, with this solution, the energy companies themselves are obliged to implement this reduction in the bill, and consumers are the beneficiaries.
“If the money ends up in the hands of the government, I don’t know if it’s going to be spent on our electricity bill or paying Treasury Department advisers,” he argued.
The text Chega will deliver to parliament will be “as complete as possible to avoid discretion on the part of the government” at the time of his ordinance, the party leader promised, explaining that, once this ordinance is passed, companies in the energy sector came into effect, “are forced to drop this price if they have an increase in profits compared to last year”.
Source: DN
