The Legislative Assembly of the Azores today approved a draft regional legislative decree on the exclusion of the objective incidence of the extraordinary contribution on Local Accommodation (AL), presented by the PSD, CDS-PP and PPM, and rejected another from the PS.
On the second day of the ordinary plenary session of the Legislative Assembly of the Azores, in Horta, the PS presented a draft regional legislative decree establishing the exclusion of the objective incidence of the extraordinary contribution on LA and the monitoring of LA in the autonomous region of the Azores and the parliamentary groups of the PSD, CDS-PP and PPM presented another for the exclusion of the objective incidence of the extraordinary contribution on LA.
The coalition’s proposal was approved in a final overall vote by a majority, with 22 votes for PSD, 22 for PS, five for Chega, two for CDS-PP, one for PPM, one for IL and one for PAN, and one vote against from BE.
The PS diploma was rejected, also by a majority, in the general vote, with 22 votes in favor from the PS, one from IL and one from PAN, with the abstention of the BE deputy, and 22 votes against from PSD, five from Chega, two from CDS-PP and one from PPM.
Presenting the proposal of the PSD/CDS-PP/PPM coalition, MP Paulo Simões (PSD) said that AL “plays a crucial role in the development of tourism in the Azores, providing a more flexible and personalized accommodation alternative” for those visiting the territory.
The Azores have in LA “the perfect symbiosis in terms of sustainability” and the sector’s growth “has had a direct positive impact on the Azorean economy”, he said.
Paulo Simões also pointed out that in addition to the direct benefits, the sector “has a significant indirect impact on the regional economy, through the revenue generated in restaurants, car rental, air and sea transportation, tourist entertainment activities, cultural workshops, plus the increase in the sale of local products and handicrafts”.
For the coalition parties, “imposing an extraordinary contribution on LA would seriously jeopardize the future of a sector whose revenues have grown by more than 20% since 2019, a remarkable achievement for a sector that took its first steps in the not-too-distant year of 2014.”
MP Andreia Cardoso, who presented the PS proposal, which was ultimately rejected, argued that the region has a specific regime for Local Accommodation and that Law 56/2023, of October 6, created the Extraordinary Contribution on Local Accommodation (CEAL) on apartments and lodging establishments integrated into an autonomous fraction of a building in Local Accommodation.
“Article 3 of the CEAL regime, under the heading ‘Objective incidence’, did not include, in its initial wording, the exclusion of properties located in the Autonomous Regions, unlike what was established for the inland territories of mainland Portugal, despite the fact that the revenue obtained from CEAL collected in the Autonomous Regions constitutes their own revenue,” he recalled.
According to the socialist, the Legislative Assemblies of the Autonomous Regions have been given the power to establish, by means of a regional legislative decree, the exclusion of the objective incidence of CEAL in their respective territories, so it is urgent to make this possibility a reality, “ensuring that LAs are subject to yet another contribution as early as next June”.
The Azorean parliament is made up of 57 deputies, 23 of whom are from the PSD, another 23 from the PS, five from Chega, two from CDS-PP, one from IL, one from PAN, one from Bloco de Esquerda and one from PPM.
