The new president of the Order of Veterinary Doctors today criticized the 23% VAT rate set for veterinary services, warning that it is one of the factors for the lack of care and potential abandonment of animals.
“Veterinary services for pets are taxed at 23% VAT, further contributing to the risk of lack of medical care and potential abandonment,” said Pedro Fabrica during the swearing-in ceremony.
In his first speech as president, Pedro Fabrica left a series of messages for veterinarians, about the need to retain professionals and value the profession, but he also spoke to the political powers and the VAT rate was one of the points raised.
Recalling that the only medical services taxed with VAT are veterinary services, Pedro Fabrica said that professionals cannot be satisfied, especially “when measures are announced to allocate two million euros to public veterinary hospitals, and the tax authorities collect around 32 million euros in VAT from veterinary services for pets”.
On the other hand, he warned that this could also be one of the factors behind the lack of care and potential abandonment of animals, a scourge – he considered – that costs 110 million euros a year, more than the budget of the Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary Science.
“We spend more on incarcerated animals than we do on the food and veterinary authority in Portugal, and we do so with no hope of controlling the situation,” he lamented, advocating “swift action on offenses, active monitoring and restricting the reproduction of dogs and cats that are not registered as breeding stock.”
In his speech, the president also criticized the new statute of the Order of Veterinary Doctors, which he says calls into question the exercise of the profession and its regulation, opening the door to malpractice, “savage competition” and the deterioration of public health, food safety and veterinary medical care.
“We will remind the next government executive of this statutory involution and the need to change it,” he stressed.