Portugal’s animal rights party (PAN) has presented a number of proposals to add to the 2016 State Budget, including tax deductions for vet bills, biological food and school transport passes and the end of IRS exemptions for bullfights and bullfighters.
The party – which in last year’s elections got its first MP, André Silva, into Parliament – has also called on the government to stop allowing the use of animals in laboratory experiments or for the purposes of obtaining fur, and asked for it to “facilitate access to non-conventional medical treatments”, and lower IVA rates for “foods of plant origin” such as soy milk, tofu and vegetarian favourites with “high nutritional levels”.
Extending the government’s “fiscal incentive” to the cinema, theatre and dance world is another suggestion put forward by the animal lovers, who want to see more incentives for the purchase of electric and environmentally-friendly cars.
PAN’s other ideas include increasing taxes on plastic bags yet again as “they still have a large weight on the country’s production of solid waste” as well as the creation of a new category of tax deductible purchases, such as for bicycles, solar panels and electric vehicles.
PAN says its proposals “won’t affect the structure of the (budget) document or collide with the government’s programme”.
michael.bruxo@algarveresident.com
