The government provides in particular for the payment of a check for 125 euros per person, plus 50 euros for each child, for all Portuguese earning less than 2,700 euros gross per month.
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Aid equivalent to about 1% of GDP. The Portuguese government unveiled Monday, September 5 a package of measures to help households cope with inflation, up to 2.4 billion euros, which will include a reduction in taxes on energy. This program of eight measures called “families first” comes in addition to the amount of 1.6 billion in aid already disbursed until September.
“It’s been thirty years since we’ve seen such a sharp and sudden increase in the cost of living”argued Prime Minister Antonio Costa, while advocating “a great deal of caution so as not to fuel an inflationary spiral”. The government thus plans to pay a check for 125 euros per person, increased by 50 euros for each child, to the Portuguese earning up to 2,700 euros gross monthly.
The socialist executive also provides direct aid to families and an extraordinary increase in retirement pensions, the Prime Minister said at a press conference. Retirees will thus receive a supplement equivalent to half of their monthly pension.
The executive, backed by an absolute majority in Parliament, will ask MPs to vote for a reduction in VAT on electricity, from 13 to 6%, and will extend until the end of the year the reduction in taxes on the fuels already in force. Antonio Costa also announced for next year a cap on rent increases at 2% and the freezing of public transport fares. In Portugal, consumer prices increased in August by 9% year on year, according to a provisional estimate by the National Institute of Statistics.