Chega announced it will present next week a bill to set VAT to zero on the food basket, repeating a proposal it had previously advanced. The announcement was made by the party leader, André Ventura, at the end of the debate on the motion of censure that was ultimately rejected. The party argues that if PS does not approve the measure, it will be hypocritical, since the socialists have also already publicly defended this tax reduction.
PS has already presented similar proposals in the Assembly of the Republic to reduce VAT to zero on the food basket, but without success. In the spring of this year, it submitted a resolution bill (an initiative without legal force, since parties cannot advance fiscal measures that reduce revenue or increase expenditure under the brake clause), which was rejected in the same plenary session in which proposals from Chega, PCP, Livre and PAN were also rejected. PS submitted another resolution bill on this matter this month.
The Government of Luís Montenegro has refused to implement this measure, arguing that it is generalist and not the most appropriate to help Portuguese families in a targeted way. The finance minister, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, used as an example that Cristiano Ronaldo's Wagyu steak would also end up paying zero VAT, highlighting that the IMF indicates that the majority of the benefit of generalized measures ends up being captured by those with the highest incomes. The prime minister also ruled out the return of zero VAT in supermarkets, also noting that in the past this measure did not always correspond to a decrease in prices.
The food basket monitored by Deco Proteste currently costs 255
