The party chairman of the PS said on Monday that paying off the tax authorities will be one of the priorities of the next Budget and defended that the State has now given a signal to monitor the increase in private wages.
These views were conveyed by Eurico Brilhante Dias in statements to journalists at the end of a visit to the Convent of Christ, in Tomar, on the first day of the Parliamentary Days of the PS, after being confronted with the proposal of the PSD to take the IRS to the sixth step in dealing with the effects of inflation.
“Our exemption options for the tax authorities did not start today, but in 2015. All things being equal, the Portuguese will pay two billion euros less today than in 2015,” began the chairman of the PS party.
From the perspective of Eurico Brilhante Dias, there will be “time to discuss the 2024 budget, where certainly” the PS and the government will try “to continue the trend of reducing taxes on work”.
In front of journalists, the chairman of the Socialist Group rejected the claim that the government is forgetting private sector workers by announcing an interim increase in civil servants’ salaries of 1 percent.
“As for the middle class, we have had a very important dimension with the valuation of wages. We will do that in the civil service and we will continue to do that in the private sector,” he insisted.
At this point, regarding the private sector, Eurico Brilhante Dias alluded to data on social security contributions, according to which, excluding the volume effect – the increase in employment -, “the average salary recorded in social security continues to grow” .
“As an employer, the State has only now, in March, given a sign to accompany this feeling of appreciation for salaries in the private sector,” argued the chairman of the parliamentary party of the PS.
According to the president of the PS bench, the political options of the package of measures presented by the government on Friday aim to “support the most vulnerable, reduce VAT, but control the proper implementation of this VAT reduction on essential products” .
The government also intends to “ensure adequate support, both in terms of housing and in terms of leasing and home loans,” he added, before referring to the issue of pensioners in view of the new package of measures that proposed by the socialist executive.
“The bunch of pensioners in Portugal had half-retirement in November, in the last quarter of 2022, plus updates in January, and it was probably the only sector of the population that guaranteed the government and this majority, also with intervention in the budget, that until December 2023, they would receive exactly a value equal to the inflation rate of 2022. That is why, since the end of 2022, we have taken great care in guaranteeing all pensioners a net income increase of more than 8%,” he emphasized.
In these circumstances, Eurico Brilhante Dias believed that the ongoing “adjustment” is essentially for civil servants, as they received wage increases below inflation.
“And we support the most vulnerable lower-income sectors. The most vulnerable and retirees were – as always – a priority for the PS,” he added.
Regarding the reduction of VAT to zero on essential food commodities, the socialist parliamentary leader said he always treated “unprepared measures” with great restraint, without any control that this tax cut was passed on to citizens at large, especially the most vulnerable. vulnerable.
“The government wants a contracted reduction with producers and distributors, with a list of essential products defined by the Ministry of Health from the outset. Therefore, the government’s approach reassures us in theory, as it gives assurances that the reduction in the VAT will effectively reach people, of course we will continue to monitor, as will the implementation of this solution,” he said.
Source: DN
