Government is “focused” only on dialogue with the PS and will hold “all meetings until the last minute” to guarantee OE
The Government’s priority is to guarantee the approval of the State Budget and, to achieve this, it is focused on reaching an agreement with the PS and will hold “all meetings until the last minute”. This was the guarantee left this Wednesday by the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, at the press conference of the Council of Ministers. “Our focus at this moment is dialogue with the party that is open to making it viable, that has presented proposals and to which we will deliver an irrefutable proposal.”, stated the minister, recovering the expression used on Tuesday by Luis Montenegro.
According to Leitão Amaro, talks with other parties are not currently taking place. “On the Government’s part, we will hold all meetings until the last minute to achieve what is in the country’s interest, which is to have an approved Budget”, he guaranteed. The option for the PS is assumed, despite the Prime Minister having considered the PS’s demands “radical and inflexible”. The counter-proposal to these demands will be presented this Thursday by the Prime Minister to Pedro Nuno Santos in a meeting at the end of the day.
It was to this meeting that Leitão Amaro sent most of the questions. Namely about IRS Jovem, a request about which he acknowledged that “there is uncertainty in the assessment” and that there is also an “emergency to resolve”. Under what terms will it be resolved? This will be the “final measure” on which agreement can be reached.
Regarding the reduction in IRC, the minister recognized the recoil in the formulation that is in the social consultation agreement and assumed that “the contours of the reduction are subject to the process of making the Budget viable”. The “evolution in the formulation of the social consultation agreement signals respect for the negotiation process with other parties, in particular with the largest opposition party”explained Leitão Amaro, adding the pressure from the social partners: “The partners agreed with these formulations because they realized that the most important thing for the country is to have an approved budget.”
Still on IRC, reacting to the IMF that defends the reduction of the tax burden on companies in the form of surcharges instead of transversal reductions in the rate, the minister admitted changes to the surcharges, but only after lowering the rate as the Government proposes. The Government’s initial proposal in the social consultation implied a reduction in the rate from 21% to 19% next year; the formulation that remained was more generic: an unaccounted decrease until 2028.
