Just another example of how Portugal has selective deafness when it comes to European entities
The European Court has banned the road service charge, but the Portuguese state carries on collecting it from motorists, earning €2 million euros a day (ostensibly to be spent on roads).
Reports explain that the government found a way to circumvent the European Court’s ruling by integrating the tax into the ‘tax on petroleum products’ (which itself is still being subsidised, although the European Commission insists it shouldn’t be).
Confused? The ‘selective deafness’ of Portugal is nothing new: remember it was informed by the European Commission back in 2012 that tolls on ‘formerly-SCUT highways’, like the Via do Infante/ A22 in the Algarve, were illegal. That didn’t stop them being charged for another 12 years. They would have continued to be charged into 2025, had PS socialists not teamed up with CHEGA to force through a moratorium, to start in January.
SIC Notícias today explains that thanks to this illegal tax, motorists have paid €675 million to the state machine in just in the last 12 months.
Perpetuation of this illegal levy is written into the 2025 State Budget – albeit “the government admits it is still looking into the matter”.
“We are coordinating and compiling information and the Ministry of Finance in particular is on top of the issue,” Economy Minister Pedro Reis tells SIC.
The Finance ministry stresses that it was the previous government that incorporated the tax into levies on oil products. It believes these changes have remedied the aforementioned illegality and also ensured that the regime complies with European law.
Tax expert Carlos Lobo thinks so too: “Instead of creating or basing this tax on a contribution, it increased the tax on oil products and allocated this revenue to Infraestruturas de Portugal. Since this was authorised by parliament, the principle of legality is respected and this correction is allowed”.
Portugal’s ISP tax was heavily ‘subsidised’ during the height of the inflationary crisis. The new AD government is slowly reducing this subsidy. In 2022, for example consumers were paying 37 cents per litre of ISP, and 8 cents towards the road service contribution. In January 2023, the ISP contribution rose to 47 cents.
This money goes directly into the coffers of Infraestruturas de Portugal. From January to June alone this year, IP received more than €336 million.
Needless to say, fuel stations and private individuals have been demanding refunds through the courts of the monies paid for ‘road service contribution’.
Source: SIC Notícias
