PS and PSD MPs elected for the Bragança constituency have welcomed the decision by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to order the collection of taxes from EDP over the sale (almost six years ago) of six dams in Trás-os-Montes to French energy company, Engie.
As things stood before the decision, the region had been suffering “a social injustice (…) going on for far too long”.
Calling the prosecutor’s decision historic, PSD MPs Hernâni Dias and Nuno Gonçalves, stressed that “the municipalities where these dams are located, which have been contributing to the country’s energy development for decades, have not received what they are owed – neither the concession rents nor the municipal property tax (IMI) corresponding to infrastructures of enormous value.”
According to both, these major infrastructures have had various implications for the territory, with social and environmental costs that are still being felt today.
“On the other hand, using the waters of our rivers has had a huge financial return, but unfortunately, it doesn’t stay in the territory,” they said.
That’s why, after the Public Prosecutor’s Office ruled in favour of the municipalities of Trás-os-Montes in their fight to collect the sums owed, EDP seemingly has no alternative but to pay the €335.2 million in taxes which have been clamoured for for so long.
This is a question of territorial justice and national cohesion”, which is why there should be no more judicial dilly-dallying, said the two MPs.
PS counterpart Júlia Rodrigues is of exactly the same opinion, suggesting the public prosecutor’s decision stands as a “turning point in the long soap opera (…) After five years of investigation, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has determined what the people of Trás-os-Montes have always known to be obvious: the sale of the six dams on the Douro, Sabor and Tua rivers could not be immune to Portuguese tax law. The collection of €335.2 million in taxes is, first and foremost, a victory for justice and transparency,” she told Lusa.
The decision “corrects a historical injustice, because the dams erected on rivers and valleys have transformed the territory, leaving deep marks on communities and ecosystems”.
For Rodrigues, the Finance Minister’s statements – that it is “extemporaneous” to talk about tax collection – came as a bucket of cold water.
“The Public Ministry was clear: the Tax Authority must collect the amounts due. The government’s role is not to relativise the law, but to ensure that it is complied with. No taxpayer, whether citizen or company, can be above the rule of law.”
“It is now up to the Tax Authority to act swiftly and transparently, and for the government to ensure that the €335.2 million enters the state coffers and that part of it reverts to the municipalities of the Douro and Trás-os-Montes.
“Only then will this process cease to be a symbol of impunity and become an example of justice,” the PS MP concluded.
The sale of the Miranda, Bemposta, Picote, Foz Tua, Baixo Sabor and Feiticeiro dams was agreed at the end of 2019 and finalised between December 2020 and January 2021, for €2.2 billion, through a corporate split and merger operation between companies created by EDP and the purchasing consortium led by the French company Engie.
Since then, the Terras de Miranda Movement and several MPs have considered that the deal should have resulted in the payment of around €400 million in taxes due on the sale of the six dams in Trás-os-Montes, of which €110 million is in stamp duty.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has shelved suspicions of tax fraud in the sale but concludes that the state is owed €335.2 million in “missing taxes”, including stamp duty, IMT and company tax, as well as interest.
The inquiry, conducted by the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP), ruled out criminal offences in the operation, but determined that the Tax Authority should proceed to collect the “missing and unpaid” taxes.
The only ‘but’ in all this is the rather unsettling reaction of the government – so far.
According to reports, Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento has intimated that the AT tax authority can still decide NOT to obey the Public Prosecutions Office. Indeed, he has suggested proposing an amendment to the current IMI tax code, establishing that ‘only from now on’ would dams be subject to IMI, and not from years previously.
Thus the pressure, unlikely to let up, for the government to stop protecting EDP and start complying with the findings of the public prosecutor’s office.
Sources: LUSA/ Esquerda.net/ Movimento Cultural da Terra de Miranda
