“Of these taxes, which support more than 50% of the state machinery and are justified by keeping the Portuguese in fiscal anesthesia, (…) it must be said that as far as Livre is concerned, the anesthesia is over,” criticized Rui Tavares.
For the Livre deputy, “it is necessary for the Portuguese to know that workers are sustaining the surplus in Social Security, which is what allows for presenting pretty accounts in Brussels, and consumers are maintaining the central administration you have in deficit.”
“And here’s the surprise: the workers and consumers are the same people, the same unfortunate ones who are bearing this, and whom you don’t think about and don’t remember after remembering all those who are similar to you and your bosses,” he criticized.
One of Livre’s proposals in the specialty of the State Budget was to reduce VAT from 23% to 21% on a gradual trajectory over four years.
Tavares accused IL, PSD, and CDS of saying little about the taxes “where the Portuguese pay more than the European average and the OECD average,” stating that these parties “know how to use the excuse of the fiscal burden to benefit the most privileged but do not talk about what is the reduction of VAT.”
The criticisms extended to the left, as “not even the ‘geringonça’ reversed this pre-troika measure,” of José Sócrates.
“They can talk about hunting VAT or housing VAT or any other small VAT, what is needed is to lower the VAT from 23% to 21%, do it gradually over four years, and this was the missed opportunity,” he said.
Addressing the CDS-PP parliamentary leader, Paulo Núncio, who defended the document moments before, Tavares retorted: “You said they could sleep peacefully with this budget, maybe if you are CEO of Galp.”
“Those who do not sleep peacefully are those who, by chance, had to pay for car repairs or plumbing unclogging at home and pay at 23%, and that is enough, in those hundreds of euros, to not know how they will end this month and how they will start the next,” he lamented.
Livre will maintain the vote against in the final global vote of the document, as in the generality, according to a decision made unanimously by the party’s Assembly on Wednesday night, an official source told Lusa.
