PS criticizes “individual proposals” of the SDP and recognizes only their analysis in the budget

On Tuesday, the PS accused the SDP of presenting “individual proposals” for tax cuts and admitted that it will only analyze them as part of the next budget, warning that if they are voted on early, “the SDP is asking the PS to fail them.”

Speaking to reporters, PS parliamentary leader Eurico Brillante Díaz reacted to the presentation of five tax cuts presented on Tuesday morning by the PSD, four bills that will come into force in 2024 and a resolution recommending the government lower tax rates. IRS in 2023.

“The tax debate is not just about measuring revenues, we also have measuring expenses. The SDP envisages proposals that should appear in the 2024 budget and which we will discuss in OE2024,” he said, accusing the Social Democrats of “irresponsible behavior” by ignoring increases in social support spending.

Asked whether the PS will fail these proposals, which will be discussed on the 20th in parliament and should be voted on next Friday, Brillante Díaz returned the question to the Social Democrats.

“This is the decision of the NDP-NDP, it is not ours, you can choose the option not to put them to a vote and have this discussion in the budgetary context. If they are looked at in a budgetary context, they will have the analysis they deserve,” he said.

Otherwise, in his opinion, “there is no point in voting for separate standards for 2024,” saying that the future of these proposals “depends on the SDP, not on the PS.”

“Ahead of the vote, they are asking the PS to reject them. I know that this may be a political figure, but the SDP seems to want to force the vote and hold the budget discussion at an untimely pace,” he said, stressing that the next state budget will arrive in parliament on October 10.

Eurico Brillante Díaz once again accused the PSD of entering a “labyrinth of contradictions” with its tax cut proposals, saying that the Social Democrats voted against all PS budgets containing tax breaks and were the authors of the “largest tax proposal.” increase as of April 25,” and in the last election they argued that the priority should be reducing the IRC, not the IRS.

“The PS parliamentary group is very calm, it has always defended cuts to the IRS, we have approved budgets that have cut the IRS and we will continue to approve budgets that will continue those cuts,” he said.

In addition to political criticism, the leader of the PS parliament emphasized that technically the SDP chose to introduce bills that will come into force in 2024, so as not to violate the “brake norm”, and uses the format of a resolution (without the force of law). to the tax cut proposal this year.

“The right-wing accounts of the SDP only have a reduction in revenues without looking at the expenditure side, this is irresponsible behavior,” he criticized, saying that between 2022 and 2023 the government approved spending of nine billion euros to support the fight against inflation. .

As part of the next state budget, the PS promises to analyze all proposals, but only when it is known what the deficit forecast for 2024 will be, what revenues and expenses will exist in 2024, what investments will be in the NHS and the state budget. schools or what additional money will be spent on increasing pensions.

“It is no coincidence that the Constitution contains an article that slows down the execution of the budget by parliamentary groups, since it knows that the balance between income and expenses is precarious (…) Discussion of the OE has been submitted. It is not enough to list income and expenses, talking only about income,” he said.

The SDP said today that the PS will hold a “clap test” when voting on its tax cut proposals, asking Socialists to “shake their conscience” to approve the Social Democrats’ “reasonable but significant” tax cuts.

The five SDP proposals include cuts to the IRS by €1,200 million in both 2023 and 2024, a reduction in the maximum IRS rate of 15% for young people under 35, a mandatory update of IRS brackets based on inflation, the creation of a mechanism allowing parliament decide what to do with the tax surplus and the IRS and TSU exemption for performance bonuses of up to 6% of annual base compensation.