Portuguese Government To Monitor Increasing Fuel Prices And ‘Act If Necessary’

THE Portuguese Government guaranteed this Saturday, September 16, that given the recent increases, it will monitor fuel prices.

Fernando Medina, Portugal’s Finance Minister, spoke with journalists after leaving the meeting of European Union finance ministers that took place today in Santiago de Compostela as part of the Spanish presidency of the EU.

‘We are evaluating and we have to evaluate what will happen from the point of view of price developments, whether we are at an exceptionally temporary peak that then returns, or whether we are not’, he stressed.

The government official highlighted that the Portuguese executive: ‘has already shown its capacity and willingness to act to protect families when it becomes absolutely necessary to do so’.

Fernando Medina said they would take action ‘if necessary’

When asked whether the Government was considering taking action now, Fernando Medina responded: ‘We will do so, if necessary, but for now we need to understand whether this is a dynamic of a peak and if the markets indicate important drops in prices soon’.

Medina explained: ‘When prices increased a lot, the Government adopted a set of measures in particular regarding the elimination of the carbon tax, but it was always assumed that it was a temporary measure’.

‘When prices began to rise more significantly in recent weeks, the process of increasing the carbon tax was interrupted and, therefore, there is no increase in the tax burden’, he added.

Discounts on tax on petroleum products stayed the same in September

At the beginning of September, the Government decided to keep the same discounts on the tax on petroleum products of 13.1 cents per litre on diesel and 15.3 on petrol, along with the suspension of the update of the rate of carbon.

Among the measures in force is the discount on the ISP equivalent to a reduction in the VAT rate from 23 per cent to 13 per cent, as well as the compensation, through the tax on petroleum products, of the additional VAT revenue that results from the increase in the price of fuels, as reported by cmjornal.pt.