Students and young residents in Portugal have until midnight this Monday, August 31, to apply for the Book Voucher on the digital platform Sou Leitor. The Ministry of Youth and Modernization extended the extraordinary deadline in June to ensure full use of the budget funds. The state program provides a financial voucher of 30 euros for the exclusive purchase of literary works, having already issued more than 50,000 vouchers in this edition, a number that exceeds the total recorded in the launch year of the measure.
The benefit is intended for citizens born between 2007 and 2008, meaning young people aged 18 and 19 who legally reside in mainland Portugal or the autonomous regions. Candidates must use the Digital Mobile Key or the Citizen's Card with an electronic reader to complete registration in the General Directorate of Books' system. The voucher is personal and non-transferable, and sharing or reselling it is prohibited.
The Book Voucher funds the purchase of paper editions such as novels, poetry, essays, comics, and literary classics. Textbooks, educational dictionaries, study support books, and periodic publications are excluded. The balance can be used on one or several works in the same transaction, but it does not generate change or accumulated credit if the total value is less than 30 euros.
Independent booksellers highlight the positive impact of the program on revitalizing city centers and attracting new readers to physical stores. The General Directorate of Books, Archives, and Libraries is now preparing a comprehensive evaluation of the project, whose results will serve as the basis for renewing future budget allocations.
