Dam in Miranda do Douro
The Public Ministry (MP) closed the suspicions of tax fraud in the sale of six EDP dams to Engie, but concluded that the State has to receive 335.2 million euros in “missing taxes”.
The inquiry that investigated the sale of Portuguese electricity plants to the French consortium led by Engie came to an end at the end of October.
At issue is the sale of the Miranda do Douro, Bemposta and Picote dams (run-of-river plants) and the Foz Tua, Baixo Sabor and Feiticeiro dams (reservoir plants with pumping), which the Portuguese electricity company sold for 2,200 million euros to a French Movhera consortium, formed by the companies Engie (40%), Crédit Agricole Assurances (35%) and Mirova – Grupo Natixis (25%).
The Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) understood that the operation did not have criminal implications, having suspected tax fraud crime filed.
However, the Public Ministry understands that there are taxes to be paid and, therefore, according to the last part of the order, to which Lusa had access, it sends the AT “collect missing taxes that have not been paid”.
In total, the MP calculates that the State has to receive 120.9 million in Stamp Tax, 99.6 million euros in IMT (Municipal Tax on Onerous Property Transfers) and 114.7 million euros in IRC.
Interest will be added to the 335.2 million euros.
BE and PCP congratulated
“We won. After years and years of denouncing EDP’s tax evasion in the sale of dams, We finally managed to get EDP to pay the taxes that were owed to the State. The Public Prosecutor’s Office analyzed this business and reached exactly the conclusion that we had already reached and that we have been denouncing all these years”, declared Mariana Mortágua, in a video published on the social network Instagram.
For the BE coordinator, the restructuring that was presented by EDP “was nothing more than a farce to avoid paying the taxes that were due for the sale of the dams” and, therefore, “the MP now says that EDP will have to pay 114 million in missing IRC for the operation, 121 million in stamp tax and 99.6 million in IMT”.
In a statement, the PCP welcomed “the struggle and intervention of the populations of Miranda do Douro, Mogadouro and Vimioso, who have always contested this process” and reaffirmed the need for “intervention on the part of tax authorities and others to force the companies involved to pay the missing taxes in full”.
The party also highlighted “the need for intervention by tax authorities and others” also “so that the entire dam concession process resulting from the privatization of EDP can be reassessed”.
“In addition to the fiscal dimension, where the collusion of successive governments of the PS and PSD/CDS that covered the freebies verified – Stamp Tax, IRC and IMT -, the PCP also considers harmful to the national interest the entire process of privatization, segmentation and alienation of EDP’s assets, including the six dams in question”, argue the communists.
