Coinciding on the same day that a government minister complained that factual reporting on violent crime in Lisbon ‘is generating a sense of insecurity in relation to reality’, the wider executive has ushered in a story presented as “government advances with IMI (rates payable) for dams, wind and solar farms”.
The only problem with the headline is that it belies ‘the reality’. The reality is that enormous amounts of IMI, due for many years, will not be ‘included’ in whatever tax decisions the government makes – and thus communities fighting to their right to €1.5 million in benefits from the €2.2 billion sale by EDP of six dams to French energy giant, Engie, will be left empty-handed.
Issuing a blistering press release today, the Cultural Movement of Terra Miranda, which has been leading this fight, explains it is easy to see what is happening: the amendment promised by the government to the IMI code with regard to the taxation of dams and other renewable energy concessions “will eliminate all IMI payable by dam, wind and photovoltaic concessionaires due to date, and will legitimise concessionaires’ claims for compensation from the state to restore the contractual balance of concession contracts, for the value of future IMI payable – meaning that this IMI will be borne by all Portuguese taxpayers”.
The group’s reading of the situation has been “corroborated by the experts quoted in the news report”, (in Jornal de Negocios), says the release.
“We do not make assumptions about the good or bad faith of the government, but the result of this legislative amendment will be as follows:
i) A real jackpot for EDP and concessionaires, who will thus be freed from paying IMI forever.
ii) A brutal loss for the populations of the 135 municipalities where the dams and power stations are located, as well as all Portuguese taxpayers.
“The government is aware of all this and has been duly alerted by this Movement.
“All of this is a direct violation of the public interest.
“The government is not only turning its back on the populations of Terra de Miranda and other municipalities, but is also acting against them. Our populations must be aware of this and of the intolerable nature of this option.
“Trying to sell us this change as if it were good for all of us is just a poor and blatant attempt to deceive us.
“We cannot accept this bill passing in the parliament. Portugal is a democracy and not (somewhere where) everything goes.
“We are an inclusive, constructive and non-partisan movement, but we cannot fail to denounce what is unacceptable, even if they try to deceive us”.
And so, in spite of engineering headlines and massaging realities, the government is unlikely to be let off this hook which has been dangling over previous administrations also – governments that balked at taking any decision, either way.
Source material: ECO/ Movimento Cultural da Terras de Miranda
