The PSD will present an alternative proposal that foresees that the greatest reduction of the IRS will be concentrated at the lower levels, thus putting pressure on a part of the opposition (especially the PS) that has been demanding precisely a distribution of the weight of the reduction in the same direction. Negotiations between parties are already underway and, after a first approach, a new round of talks took place this afternoon.
As the Observer explains, the social democrats will try a new maneuver to save the reduction in the IRS with which they wanted to start the new government cycle. The PSD must present an alternative proposal in terms of specialty to try to coordinate positions with the rest of the parties, which will imply, at least in theory, getting closer to the proposals of the PS and Chega. This consensus is not impossible, but the PSD is willing to move forward with a replacement text whether an agreement is reached or not.
Let us remember that PS and Chega defend a reduction in the IRS, especially in the lowest income brackets, contrary to what the Government intended. After a discreet first round to find out availability, the PSD returned this Wednesday to adopt a new approach. However, the social democrats did not present a text, speaking before the availability of reaching a final document that can be entered without the approval of a single party, after positions on IRS rates have been reached. “There is no written text yet,” says a source who has been following the process.
In the morning, at the meeting of the parliamentary Budget and Finance Commission, the PSD deputy, Hugo Carneiro, had called on the parties “to be able to speak oblique and bring closer positions on the IRS.” PS and Chega (one of them will have to save the Government) showed their willingness to do so. What’s more: among socialists it is even said that “there will be a solution“.
The first contacts of the PSD with the remaining benches occurred between last weekend and Monday, but the second round has already begun this afternoon and with the desire to reach an agreement on the next days. There are, however, some suspicions between the different parties.
For example, in the morning meeting, the Social Democrats claim to have seen the left not comfortable with the steps that the PS approved for the Technical Budget Support Unit (UTAO) to evaluate each of the initiatives on the IRS that came to light. the parliamentary committee. on Budget and Finance last week and assess its budgetary impact. The PSD suspects that the PS wants an opinion from UTAO on the proposals of the seats on its left for the put aside without hardly knowing their cost, giving them up after having approved them in the first parliamentary vote.
The truth is that the action requested by the PS ended up being approved by unanimity at the meeting of the parliamentary commission this Wednesday, with the UTAO having 15 days to present its accounts on each proposal, which ends up weakening the social democratic thesis of the left’s unrest.
However, in PS the guarantee is different. Socialist sources assure that the party is open to including demands from its left in a final text, with budgetary impact only next year, since this year the margin to change the IRS is that of the Government’s proposal: 348 million euros. And regarding this latest attempt by the PSD to have an agreed replacement text, the socialists maintain their initial position: either they have all the projects that passed to the parliamentary commission (the three approved by the left and those of the Government and IL), They count or not with the PS for a business only for two. For the Observer, parliamentary leader Alexandra Leitão repeated this same principle this Wednesday afternoon.
The problem is that the PSD wants to limit the negotiations to the IRS tables, that is, it is not open to changes in the specific deductions, For example. In the PS, even on Wednesday afternoon, there was optimism regarding a consensus. “It won’t be long” before a conclusion is reached on this negotiation process, even one socialist told the Observer. The PSD has not yet contacted everyone in this second round, but talks with the socialists, as we can see, are already underway.
At the meeting of the parliamentary commission, Hugo Carneiro warned that “the consensus that must be reached is an IRS table, which is the fairest for all Portuguese, in particular for the middle class affected by the tax burden.” The proposal that the Government brought to Parliament – and which passed to the commission without going to a vote in plenary, at the request of the Government itself Government — provides for a reduction of between 0.25 and 3 percentage points in the rates applicable to the first to eighth income brackets, with the largest reduction recorded in the sixth bracket.
Already the one of P.S., approved against the wishes of the AD, intends for the largest reduction to be concentrated in the lowest income strata (the first five). the one of left block intends to increase the value of specific deductions and charges on property, as well as interest deductions on home loans for contracts after 2011. PCPAs for the tables, he wants to reduce those for the first sections and make them worse for those with higher incomes and also create a new rate of 56% for incomes greater than 250,000 euros per year. In it He comes The proposal implies a reduction in rates up to level 8 and in ILLINOIS The idea is to set only two levels and reduce rates.
PSD tries to coordinate positions to save the Government’s proposal to reduce the IRS
Source: Observadora
