This Friday, the President of the Republic asked companies with extraordinary profits to take measures of greater social responsibility, sacrificing the distribution of dividends, considering that a possible tax cannot be retroactive and must be fair.
Companies that in this situation, for various reasons, have been making extraordinary profits due to an extraordinary situation should be the first to take the initiative of greater social responsibility. They have to invest more in social terms, sacrificing dividends, the distribution of profits, they must take this initiative, ”Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa responded to journalists when asked about his opinion on the possibility of taxing extraordinary profits.
On the sidelines of the EurAfrican Forum 2022, which ended this Friday in Carcavelos, district of Lisbon, the President of the Republic said that the application of taxes for these situations “is an issue that is being discussed” in other countries, the difficulty being “finding a solution that is not retroactive and that is fair and has a counterpart that must be studied”.
If taxes are really raised for those who have obtained extraordinary benefits due to an extraordinary situation, perhaps we should lower taxes or take social measures in relation to those disadvantaged sectors that suffer the most,” he proposed.
However, for now Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa He preferred to focus on the “call to those who are in this situation to set an example of social responsibility now more than ever.”
Asked why the Government should do if the companies do not take this initiative that he requested, the Head of State declined to anticipate “debates that were not held with the Government or in Parliament.”
All that remains is the appeal, on the one hand, and, on the other, the idea that any measure that is taken has to be a fair measure in the way it is taken and that, in its results, it reaches the people. pockets if not people will think: increase taxes on certain activities and where is the money from that increase in terms of social measures and consequences for those who suffer the most, ”he insisted.
Source: Observadora
