Liberal Initiative (IL) president Rui Rocha said on Sunday that the reduction of VAT on essential food products is coming with a delay, highlighting that the measure had been proposed by the party in the state budget for 2023.
“When [a IL] presented its Budget proposal for 2023, this measure was already included. We believe that it is not a measure that will solve the problems by itself, but it is an extra help that the Portuguese could have received long ago, at the time of great need that we all know. And that is why this concrete measure comes with a delay,” says Rui Rocha.
The IL leader spoke to journalists in Fátima, on the sidelines of the 2nd National Assembly of Territorial Nuclei and the 3rd National Assembly of Mayors, referring that the party will see “now how it will be implemented, because the government of António Costa has the country already accustomed “to announcements that hardly come true later”.
For the deputy, “what is happening is that the Portuguese have paid more than they had to for a range of goods, namely essential goods”, and “this relief could have helped the Portuguese to face the end of the month with a little more confidence steps.”
The government will reduce VAT on essential food products, Finance Minister Fernando Medina announced on Friday, setting the rate to zero in the basket of essential goods.
It was also announced that civil servants will receive a new salary increase of 1% this year and an increase in the food subsidy.
On that occasion it was also announced that the executive will allocate EUR 140 million to support agricultural production this year, so that producers can absorb the increase in production costs.
On that day, in an initial reaction to the government’s measures, the president of IL stated that they represent an “amended budget”, accusing the socialist government of “giving with one hand what it took with two in recent months” and insisted that a “clear tax cut”.
On the aid of 140 million euros, Rui Rocha said today that “Portuguese farmers are well aware of what the promises have been and then the inability, namely the Ministry of Agriculture, to fulfill and implement the programs presented”, pointing out that in the rural development program “1,300 million must be implemented, because the government cannot put the money into the economy”.
Rui Rocha also believed that it was “a series of separate measures”, recalling that the IL “has already tabled proposals twice, in state budgets, for the purpose of reducing the IRS, namely for the lowest levels, and what what happens is that the Portuguese pay extremely high taxes systematically, month after month, day after day, week after week”.
“That is the result of this excess tax collection that the government is now using for this,” he stressed, pointing out that “it makes no sense for the government to take it out of the pockets of all Portuguese and then give it back when it understands, how it understands and whenever you want”, he stated, recognizing however that “there must be direct support for those who basically have no income and those who need it most”.
According to Rui Rocha, “this assistencialist vision is not the one defended by the Liberal Initiative”.
Source: DN
