The Government of the Azores promised this Tuesday that it will fight to change the VAT component in the Regional Finance Law in the State Budget for 2025, while the opposition criticizes the direction of the archipelago’s public finances.
“We are convinced, hopeful and fighting so that one of the remains of the troika can finally rise in Portugal and this means more transfers and VAT funds to the Azores, more own income and avoiding the need for debt,” said the Secretary of the Treasury. , Planning and Public Administration (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM).
Duarte Freitas, who spoke at the plenary session of the Regional Assembly taking place in Horta, praised the actions of the Government of the Republic towards the Azores, exemplifying the transfer of funds to compensate for the losses caused by Hurricane Lorenzo.
On September 30, The Azores Government hopes to raise an additional €150 million in 2025 by restoring pre-troika VAT rules and admitted taking out a loan for this amount if this claim was unsuccessful.
The intervention of the head of Finance of the region occurred in the debate on the multi-annual budget programming framework 2025/2028, which ended up being approved in a final global vote with 23 votes in favor of the PSD, five for Chega, two for the CDS -PP, one for the PPM and the abstention of the IL deputy, having received 23 votes against the PS, one from the BE and one from the PAN.
In the debate, the Block deputy, António Lima, pointed out that the State Budget proposal for 2025 (OE2025) does not include the review of the Regional Finance Law and accused the Azores executive of “trying to quickly solve a problem that he himself created with his budget policy”.
The PS/Açores, through deputy Carlos Silva, criticized the regional government for the “negligent manner in the management of public finances” and warned that the SATA airline “is worse than in 2020.”
“The government [Regional] “It is leading the region to a dead end.”the socialist shot.
The social democrat Joaquim Machado condemned the “political impudence” of the PS, evoking the period of socialist governance in the region (1996 to 2020), while the PPM parliamentarian João Mendonça highlighted the “remarkable economic growth” recorded in the Azores in recent years. four years. .
The Chega deputy Francisco Lima classified him as “mediocre” the expected growth for the economy of the Azores and warned of the risks of “financing current expenses with community funds.”
Pedro Neves, of the PAN, considered that the programming framework of the 2025/2028 multi-annual budget contains “a lot of information”, while the liberal Nuno Barata accused the Azorean executive of “not wanting to sell Azores Airlines” because the company is a “political instrument dirty at the service of this majority government.”
Upon learning of the OE2025, the Secretary of the Treasury recalled that the proposal for the region’s preliminary draft plan for 2025 foresees a debt of up to 150 million euros “in the event that the Finance Law of the Autonomous Communities regarding VAT”, which was not, at this stage, included in the budget documents.
Duarte Freitas then said that he hoped that, “until the end of the discussion within the scope of OE2025, this fair demand of the region will be presented as one of the last remnants of the troika in Portugal”, which “cuts tax revenues in terms of VAT”, due to the tax differential (30%) between the Azores and the mainland.
The parliament of the Azores is made up of 57 deputies, 21 from the PSD, 22 from the PS, five from Chega, two from the CDS-PP, one from the PPM, one from the IL, one from the BE and one from the PAN. .
Source: Observadora
