“The shame, if we wish to find it, does not lie with the courts working with scarce resources – it lies with the persistent lack of resources allocated to them,” states a communiqué from CSTAF released today, in response to the minister’s remarks.
After the Minister for State and Administrative Reform, Gonçalo Matias, told parliament today that administrative and tax justice is “a national disgrace,” considering that Portugal has the slowest decision times in Europe, CSTAF responded by accusing the government of “ignoring the objective reality.”
Cited in the communiqué, judge Eliana de Almeida Pinto, a CSTAF secretary and appellate judge, claims that “what exists is the result of successive governments’ shameful lack of investment in the jurisdiction responsible for controlling the legality of the administration itself and state taxation.”
“The smallest Court of Appeal (Évora), with 1/3 of the cases of the Southern Administrative Central Court (TCA Sul), has more judges. What miracle does the Minister expect administrative and fiscal judges to achieve?” questioned the appellate judge.
Eliana Pinto stated that “the numbers are clear,” noting that “in the second instance of this jurisdiction, the frameworks foreseen by the political power for the second instance (number of appellate judges) are three to four times lower than those of the Courts of Appeal.”
“It is intended to demand the same level of response with an army reduced to a platoon. Mathematics doesn’t lie; unfortunately, neither do budget priorities,” she criticized.
The judge noted that administrative and fiscal courts receive “ten times more tax cases” than the Administrative Arbitration Center (CAAD), yet it has more arbitrators than the courts have tax judges.
Regarding the jurisdiction’s productivity, resolution rates in central administrative courts (equivalent in administrative and fiscal jurisdiction to Courts of Appeal in criminal jurisdiction) are highlighted as 100% in the northern court, which has a team of appellate judges (33) that is about ¼ of the Lisbon Court of Appeal (142), for example.
Data from June, published in the council’s newsletter, point to resolution rates in tax courts above 200% and various administrative and fiscal courts with rates over 100%, meaning more cases were completed than those entered, reducing backlogs.
Recalling that CSTAF presented nine months ago proposals to the Ministry of Justice to strengthen magistrates, streamline procedures, and modernize, which went unanswered, Eliana Pinto expressed “regret that some prefer to point fingers at the courts” and that “it would be more accurate – and intellectually honest – to point them at political choices that, for decades, sacrifice administrative and fiscal justice on the altar of budgetary indifference.”
“The country cannot demand excellence with survival tools. Justice is not done on bread and water; it is done with responsibility, investment, and institutional commitment,” concludes the communiqué.
The administrative and fiscal jurisdiction was paralyzed in recent weeks due to the migration process of the IT system, prompting CSTAF to request an urgent meeting with the Ministry of Justice and demand immediate measures to resolve the constraints.
The PS has meanwhile announced that this would be one of the topics to discuss with the Minister of Justice, Rita Alarcão Júdice, during the hearing on the specialty discussion of the State Budget for 2026, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
