The Azores Parliament approves the exception of cases of emergency contributions for local accommodation

The Legislative Assembly of the Azores approved this Wednesday the draft regional legislative decree to exclude the objective impact of the emergency contribution on local accommodation (AL), presented by PSD, CDS-PP and PPM, and rejected another one from the PS.

On the second day of the regular plenary session of the Legislative Assembly of the Azores in Horta, the PS presented a draft regional legislative resolution establishing the exclusion of the objective influence of the extraordinary contribution on AL and the monitoring of AL in the Autonomous Region of the Azores and the parliamentary groups of the PSD, CDS-PP and PPM to the exclusion of each other objective impact of extraordinary contribution on AL.

The coalition proposal was approved in the final global vote with a majority of 22 votes for SDP, 22 for PS, five for Chegu, two for SDS-PP, one for NPM, one for IL and one for PAN, and one vote against BE.

The PS diploma was also rejected by a majority of votes in the general vote: 22 votes for PS, one from IL and one from PAN, while MP BE abstained, 22 votes against from SDP, five from Chegi, two from SDS-PP and one from PPM.

Presenting the PSD/CDS-PP/PPM coalition proposal, MP Paulo Simões (PSD) said AL “plays a decisive role in the development of tourism in the Azores by providing a more flexible and personalized accommodation alternative” for those visiting the territory.

Alabama’s Azores represents a “perfect symbiosis in terms of sustainability,” and the sector’s growth has “had a direct positive impact on the Azores economy,” he said.

Paulo Simões also noted that in addition to direct benefits, the sector “has a significant indirect impact on the regional economy through income generated from restaurants, car rentals, air and sea transport, tourist entertainment events, cultural workshops.” to increase sales of local products and crafts.”

For coalition parties, “imposing an extraordinary AL contribution would seriously jeopardize the future of a sector whose revenues have grown by more than 20% since 2019, a remarkable achievement for a sector that took its first steps in the not too distant year of 2014.”

Deputy Andrea Cardoso, who presented the PS proposal, which was ultimately rejected, stated that the region has a special regime for AL and that Law No. 56/2023 of October 6 created the Emergency Local Accommodation Tax (CEAL) on apartments and properties accommodation integrated into an autonomous part of the building in AL.

“Article 3 of the CEAL regime, entitled “Objective distribution”, in its original wording did not include the exclusion of properties located in autonomous regions and not those assigned to the interior territories of mainland Portugal, despite the fact that the revenues received from CEAL are levied in autonomous regions, represent their own income,” he recalled.

According to the socialist, the power to establish, through regional legislative decree, the exclusion of the objective distribution of CEAL in the respective territories has been transferred to the Legislative Assemblies of the autonomous regions, so it is urgent to realize this possibility, “ensuring that AL will be the target of further making this contribution in June next year.”

The Azores Parliament consists of 57 deputies, 23 of whom are from the PSD, another 23 from the PS, five from Chegi, two from the SDS-PP, one from the IL, one from the PAN, one from the Bloc. de Esquerda and one from PPM.