MPs seek to grill both on how they justify calculations
Former finance minister Fernando Medina, and current finance minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, are to face parliamentary hearings – the first because certain MPs suspect he ‘artificially reduced’ Portugal’s debt with ‘pension money’, the second because certain MPs believe he could have devised more equitable income tax relief.
The hearing of Mr Medina has been requested by the CDS (the party supporting PSD in the ‘Democratic Alliance’ that won last month’s elections).
CDS parliamentary leader Paulo Núncio accused Mr Medina on the basis of a report by the Technical Budget Support Unit (UTAO) which has recently ‘warned that the debt reduction carried out by the Socialist government in 2023 was merely artificial’ and that ‘it was only done with money from the Social Security Financial Stabilisation Fund and Caixa Geral de Aposentações’ (the pension service for workers from the public sector).
Mr Núncio has said that this situation is “extremely serious” and that the former minister must answer to parliament.
Núncio’s ‘request’ for a hearing received votes in favour from all parliamentary groups present, including the PS.
Meanwhile, the CHEGA request for the hearing of Joaquim Miranda Sarmento is just as contentious, as it refers to the government’s already rather bungled ‘income tax relief’ – and the fact that both CHEGA and PS Socialists have proposals which they both believe are much more equitable: proposals that favour the lowest earners, not the highest (as has been the criticism of Mr Sarmento’s plans…)
Taken to the logical conclusion, this means when the government’s proposal for income tax relief comes up for a vote, CHEGA may end up voting AGAINST it, in favour of the PS proposal. Something the party leader André Ventura concedes is ‘bizarre’, but when all one is interested in is reducing people’s taxes, ‘bizarre’ is not the issue.
