The president of the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) defended exceptional support measures for municipalities this Saturday, so that the impact of inflation and increases in energy costs do not unbalance municipal bills.
Speaking at the opening session of the National Assembly of Mayors, in Viseu, Luísa Salgueiro said that the consequences that the rise in inflation and energy costs have caused on the bills are “such that they demand and recommend that the government also take extraordinary measures.” takes for the provinces”.
The mayor of Matosinhos said that in the state budget for 2023, the government will have to “go further to ensure that local authorities can exercise their powers – the old, traditional and new – while keeping the accounts in order”.
“It is important, and we will say to the government, the role of defending the people, who put it first, is decisive, and the companies, but it is also time to deal with the municipalities.” , the ANMP chairman underlined, emphasizing the problems that municipalities have wisely to respond to all situations.
Luísa Salgueiro also mentioned the new conditions for municipalities resulting from the new regime of extraordinary price revisions “and that the impact of inflation on the price of commodities was not absorbed by companies.
“Special legislation has been published so that we can carry out extraordinary price revisions, but the municipalities have to pay and what happens is that this impact is often not absorbed, and again the country does not respond in a homogeneous way. balance their budget,” he warned.
The ANMP chairman emphasized that the mayors are not giving up on “claiming all the conditions”, so that as they tackle the situation of companies, it is also guaranteed that “the municipalities will not see their situation unbalanced by this extraordinary regime”.
Regarding the ongoing decentralization process, which will be the subject of a panel during the afternoon to discuss the situation and debate, Luísa Salgueiro said the ANMP is making progress so that “there are no setbacks and that the municipalities are not penalized in their accounts in this step”.
“At this stage, we need to ensure that the accounts are in balance and that the agreement we signed at the end of June, which will now affect the state budget and our municipal budgets, is fundamentally different from the rules that were in the past and ensure that this balance in the different sectors is guaranteed,” he said.
The leader stressed that the process has not been completed and that “many issues need to be resolved”, the leader added that this month and October will be the period devoted to concluding a new agreement in the social field.
The National Assembly of Mayors takes place in Viseu throughout the day, with local management and financing and decentralization of powers on the agenda.
The Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Ana Abrunhosa, Ana Abrunhosa, will chair the closing session, which is scheduled for 6 pm.
Source: DN
