The Liberal Initiative will propose in the budget process the abolition of the increase in the unified turnover tax (IUC) and says it does not trust the Ministry of Finance’s guarantee that an annual increase limit of 25 euros will be set.
Speaking to reporters in parliament, President Illich Rui Rocha stressed that it was his party that was the first a week ago to “expose the absolute financial injustice” of the IUC increase provided for vehicles before 2007 in the proposed state budget for 2024.
“During the two-week debate, I had the opportunity to propose to the Prime Minister to abandon this measure (…) António Costa had a week to turn around and to this day he persists in this intention. IL will submit a proposal to cancel the IUC hike as part of the budget process,” he said.
Rui Rocha also said that the party will then begin a structural reflection “on property, income and vehicle taxes,” given that “there are clear financial injustices and injustices on several counts.”
The IL leader regretted that Prime Minister and Finance Minister Fernando Medina was not sensitive to criticism from opposition parties, environmental associations or mayors, saying that even on the PS bench “there is a group of people who have already spoken out about injustice” of this measure.
“The Ministry of Finance itself came today to guarantee that there will be no increases exceeding 25 euros. [por ano] and this indicates the lack of guarantees included in the budget,” he believes.
However, Rui Rocha emphasized that Fernando Medina “promised half a dozen months ago that the tax burden would decrease, and now he has increased it in the budget.”
“This guarantee from the Ministry of Finance is worthless,” he believes, arguing that the “only solution” is to abolish the tax.
In his address to journalists, the IL leader also wanted to comment on Tuesday’s interview with the chief executive of the National Health Service (SNS) in the newspaper Público, in which Fernando Araujo warns that if doctors do not reach an agreement with the government, November could become the worst month on social networks over the past 44 years.
The IL leader said he expected Fernando Araújo to focus on running the SNS and “leaving the political dimension” to the health minister and the prime minister, accusing him of “almost shifting responsibility to the media.”
“November can indeed be a dramatic month, but this responsibility lies with Antonio Costa because he was prime minister for eight years. I hope that Fernando Araujo will focus on running the social network, rather than serving as a lightning rod for the actions of António Costa.” , criticized Rui Rocha.