Rui Rocha says zero VAT on food is not a structural measure

Liberal Initiative leader Rui Rocha said this Friday that he supports extending the zero VAT measure until the end of the year, but said it is not a “structural or fundamental” measure like the VAT cut. US IRS.

“We will support this vision, but it is neither structural nor fundamental. It is only necessary to reduce taxes on labor,” Rui Rocha told reporters while visiting work on Porto’s Yellow Line metro in Vila Nova de Gaia.

The Council of Ministers approved on Thursday a proposed law that would extend the zero VAT rate on a basket of “essential” food products until the end of the year.

Speaking to reporters, the Liberal Initiative (LI) leader said the “emergency revenues” collected by the government should be used to reduce the IRS.

“We need to cut taxes. We’ve always had that position, but we also had the vision that the fundamental thing was cutting the labor tax, the IRS. This is the central part of our proposal at the moment, and it was this [descida do IRS] that we defended,” he noted.

According to Rui Rocha, solutions to improve the lives of the Portuguese include three aspects: “more income, more access to housing and more mobility.”

“We have seen a Socialist Party completely insensitive and it no longer relates to the proposals of the Liberal Initiative, this or that party (…) but to the needs of the Portuguese,” he said, saying that the prime minister “has demonstrated that he is not listens to the Portuguese.”

“We have evidence that António Costa governs alone, governs without listening to anyone, and governs primarily from a propaganda point of view, with virtually no solutions for the country, and tries to create the impression that the measures he presents are structural, problem solvers. and then the realization that we have the exact opposite,” he said, listing a shortage of teachers in public schools, a shortage of doctors in the National Health Service and a lack of daycare for children.

Rui Rocha also stressed that Mais’ housing package should encourage the Prime Minister to “think and not show this stubbornness based on an absolute majority, which sometimes almost realizes itself as an absolutist majority.”

“This package is approved against the Portuguese, against the views of the President of the Republic, against the parties represented in the Assembly of the Republic, but more than that, it is approved against the Portuguese who need housing solutions,” he added.