Pressure is growing for the Government to create a tax to tax the exceptional costs of companies in times of inflationary crisis and it already comes from within the PS. The prime minister does not dismiss the idea, although he still raises several doubts, namely whether the companies should all go into the same bag, which could mean that a possible measure of this type will not be available soon.
In fact, when confronted the night before with the position of the president of his party, António Costa immediately began by mentioning that the government’s “priority” is the package of measures to support families and businesses that it will present in September. Regarding the extraordinary taxation of companies that are benefiting from the abnormal rise in inflation, the prime minister says the government is “carefully studying and analyzing”.
The president of the PS defends the extraordinary tax on exceptional profits
“We do not rule out the situation in which there are companies whose activity has been abnormally benefiting from the price increase”, he guaranteed when asked about the need for a new tax on these companies, on the sidelines of a visit to a nursery in Alfragide . But, at the same time, he warned that “you have to keep in mind that, for some, there are already fees, surcharges and surcharges. Therefore, the situation is not entirely comparable with other countries and this must be taken into account because perhaps it is no longer reasonable to ask for a third surcharge and that must be thought through”.
He even spoke of some specific areas, to explain the doubts he still has on this point. In the case of energy companies, he said, “part of these surpluses are already being used to finance the Iberian mechanism”, since they began to contribute to financing the mechanism to subsequently ensure lower energy prices.
But in the oil companies, it was when he spoke of the need to “analyse carefully”, since it is one of the sectors “where these capital gains are still not being adequately monitored.”
Another example: distribution. Prices have risen, but Costa wants to know first if this is happening “because of distribution margins or because of who sells the products to distribution.” “We have to see where these overprices are and if they are justified or not,” he argued, guaranteeing that the Government is “analyzing whether it is justified.”
In addition, the Executive is also awaiting the consequences that a measure of this nature can bring. “We are also studying the effective benefit that other countries that have already adopted measures of this saying are having.” “If this translates into nothing or almost nothing… you have to look at the objective,” he said, showing that he is still cautious on an issue where the intervention of the left is demanded.
Source: Observadora
