The coordinator of the Left Bloc, Catarina Martins, considered this Sunday “incomprehensible” and “unforgivable” the decision of the Government to “raise” the Tax on Petroleum Products (ISP), a measure that “cancels the drop in fuel prices “.
“The Government’s decision to raise the ISP and with that cancel the drop that was expected to exist tomorrow is absolutely incomprehensible [segunda-feira] in fuels. Fuels have had absurd prices, prices that impact the entire economy and the Government’s action of not allowing prices to drop is an action that will harm everyone”, said the BE leader.
Catarina Martins, who was speaking to journalists at the Estela fair, in the municipality of Póvoa de Varzim (Oporto district), pointed out that “Portugal is one of the countries where food products have increased the most”, for which she repeated her Criticism of the Government for “not keeping up with inflation.
“We have a government that did not allow wages to rise and did not keep up with inflation. I didn’t control the prices,” he said.
The coordinator of the Left Bloc defended “the control of price margins and energy prices” and admitted that the ISP may not be the solution and stressed that “this is an impossible situation for the country.”
“We know that there is an international crisis that the Government did not choose. But the government chooses its response to the crisis and by freezing wages and not allowing them to keep up with inflation, by not allowing fuel to go down through taxes, what it is doing is aggravating the crisis and that is inexcusable”, he concluded.
The Ministry of Finance announced on Friday that in December there is a reduction in the ISP discount of 3.9 cents per liter for diesel and 2.4 cents per liter for gasoline, taking into account the fall in prices.
In a statement, the guardianship said that, as announced, “the applicable mechanism in the ISP equivalent to a decrease in the VAT rate from 23% to 13% and the compensation mechanism through the ISP of reducing the additional collection of the VAT, resulting from changes in fuel prices, remain in force.
Thus, taking into account the evolution of the price of diesel and gasoline, “these temporary measures translate into a reduction in the ISP discount of 3.9 cents per liter of diesel and 2.4 cents per liter of gasoline. This maintains a discount of 17.1 cents per liter in the diesel ISP and 15.4 cents per liter in the gasoline ISP”, reads the same note.
Source: Observadora
