The government intends to expand the home loan support scheme to more families and wants the bank to offer a flat rate to those who already have a loan, the finance minister said.
In an interview with the Público newspaper, Fernando Medina talks about this expansion for families with an effort level above 50% once the index exceeds 3%, explaining that since the indices already exceed this value for all maturities, “the majority of families that meet the law’s criteria will be able to benefit from support regarding housekeeping.”
Fernando Medina also points to the “second dimension” of this change, which the government intends to make so that all families receiving this support will benefit from an increase in the interest rate of 75% compared to 3% (now it is 50% on the fifth and sixth scales).
He asked if the measure in force had any effect. Medina replies: “Interest rates are at such a level that they are already too high for the burden that families can bear, namely in the most recent contracts, which have not yet grown enough for the mechanism to be effective.”
“The last important point of this amendment that we are making is that this decree applies to all situations from the beginning of 2023,” he clarifies.
In this interview, the official also points out that the possibility of a “significant expansion” of the offer of flat-rate regimes is being worked out with banks and the Bank of Portugal – and will be presented in September.
“Many families ask: “This amount is growing, but how long will it grow? And how much will it grow? And the answer to this second problem, in particular, is to be much more widespread and possible to use flat-rate regimes, or at least flat-rate regimes for a certain period,” he explains.
In an interview, Fernando Medina also mentions that the government will consider extending zero VAT on certain food products, which has been extended until the end of the year.
“Yes, we are going to analyze it depending on inflation, interest rates, needs at any given moment,” he said.
Regarding the privatization of TAP, he adds that the previous step towards formalizing the process has already been taken, which was chosen by the appraisers, and that from the moment they submit their report, the government will be able to approve a decree-law with the general principles of the company’s privatization, which should take place in September.
“We expect that this will happen in September, and it is this decree-law that officially announces the start of the privatization process,” he says.
Continuing the teachers’ protests, he explains that all civil servants have seen their careers freeze during the Troika years, which since 2015 has “done a very important job of restoring normalcy”, but asks: “If it was done with one profession, would you agree that it wasn’t done with others?”
“We must treat everyone exactly the same,” he insists.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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