State Budget 2023: Déjà vu or more of the same?

The final proposal for the State Budget for 2023 was approved in general terms, with the final overall vote now scheduled for 25 November. Given the current volatile environment, marked by the war in Ukraine, the economic, energy and environmental crisis, one would expect the document to bring greater security and protection for families and businesses. The reality we face is, however, different. In general, the State Budget for 2020 ignores inflation and its effects, camouflaging them with increases that are not sufficient to compensate for the real loss of income of Portuguese families.

Thus, there are several measures that are “sold” to us as enormous tax relief and which represent enormous aid to individuals and businesses, but which in fact mean very little in the grand scheme of things. To face these uncertain times that we are going through, and will unfortunately continue to go through, the promises of stability, confidence and commitment seem to be nothing more than a mirage, with clear signs on the horizon of a slowdown in growth and contraction of the economy, given the inadequacy and insufficiency of the measures announced. This is a situation that seems to repeat itself year after year and budget after budget, years in which nothing is done to pull the country out of a state of stagnation and near irrelevance, both at European and international level.

It should be understood that this is one of the most important activities for the national economy and that the successive increases in transport and energy costs are directly reflected in the prices of final products that reach consumers, leaving the latter, as always, harmed by phenomena over which they have no control. At the same time, unfortunately, this is one of the sectors with the greatest environmental impact, so it is difficult to understand the lack of any kind of political attention, in a transversal way, to this issue. There are still no strategic measures to reduce fossil fuel consumption and, as there are still no real alternatives in this sector, there is no incentive to invest in more modern and, consequently, more efficient vehicles, with better performance and lower CO2 emissions.

There has been a lot of talk about drastically reducing carbon emissions by 2030, but what has been done in practice? All companies are treated “equally”, both those investing in new, more environmentally friendly trucks and those keeping an old, polluting fleet. Taxes, costs and tolls are also the same, with no benefits for those who work with their eyes on the future and the next generations.

Source: Dinheiro Vivo