António Pedro Santos / Lusa
Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, Minister of State and Finance
The tax discount will decrease again whenever the price of fuel also decreases. But when?
The Government will continue to reduce o discount in the Tax on Petroleum and Energy Products (ISP), as well as by Brussels, in new cuts in fuel prices, as it did two weeks ago.
“We have to reverse the discount and we started it two weeks ago. We will use the same methodology as two weeks ago: whenever there are price drops that allow part of the discount reversal to be accommodated, it will be done”, said Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, speaking to Portuguese journalists in Brussels at the end of the meeting of European Union Finance Ministers.
Asked about when This will happen, the government official pointed out that it is “impossible to say”. “If I could predict six months or a year the price of oil, I would be a trillionaire at the level of Mr. Elon Muskbut unfortunately I don’t have that ability”, he joked.
Os fuel prices will to descend again next week: reduction of 2.5 cents per liter of diesel and 2 cents per liter of gasoline, according to .
At issue are the European Commission’s regular requests to Portugal to end the discount on the Tax on Petroleum and Energy Products (ISP) that was created in 2022 and 2023 following the energy crisis related to the war in Ukraine and high inflation.
According to the Government, the European Commission did not impose any dateso this reduction will be gradual.
At the end of November, the Government introduced a discount on the ISP applicable to unleaded gasoline and road diesel, canceling out part of the drop in fuel prices expected for the following week.
IUC
The Minister of Finance was also asked about the Single Circulation Tax (), indicating that he had presented “a fiscal simplification agenda at the beginning of this year”, so there will now be “a change only in payment method”.
“O tax will maintain exactly the same valor. In fact, the tax has not been increased even by the inflation rate for two years, either in the budget for 2024 or in the budget for 2025”, he pointed out.
Thus, the change aims only to “simplify”, now defining that the IUC has “a single payment in April, if the amount is up to 100 euros, two payments in April and October if it is between 100 euros and 500 euros and three annual payments if it is more than 500 euros”, he repeated.
