The Government Program foresees the temporary application of VAT at the minimum rate of 6% on construction and rehabilitation works for permanent housing, according to the document released today.
In the document released today, the PSD/CDS-PP government led by Luís Montenegro says it will create a temporary scheme to reduce tax costs on “construction or rehabilitation work on properties intended for permanent habitation”, regardless of where they are located, adding that it will compensate local authorities for the loss of revenue.
Among the measures is the application of 6% VAT to construction and rehabilitation works and services, as was already included in AD’s electoral program (pre-election coalition between PSD, CDS-PP and PPM), also referring to the “extension of deductibility”.
It also provides for the “substantial reduction or elimination” of urbanization, building, use and occupation taxes, without specifying how this will be done.
The Government Program also foresees a Public-Private Partnership program for the construction and rehabilitation “on a large scale of both general housing and student accommodation” and the facilitation of “new housing concepts in the Portuguese market” (giving as examples the construction of houses for rent, moderate cost housing, modular housing, housing cooperatives and flexible use of student residences).
It will also study the legislative framework for urban licensing and control in order to possibly simplify processes.
Today’s Government Program does not indicate the financial impact of these measures.
In the document, the government states that it will also increase the scope of the Porta 65 program within the limits of its application, without providing any further information.
The Program of the XXIV Constitutional Government was delivered today by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Pedro Duarte, to the President of the Assembly of the Republic, José Pedro Aguiar-Branco.
The document is not voted on in the Assembly of the Republic, only considered, but the parliamentary groups can present motions to reject the program, whose approval requires “an absolute majority of the deputies in office”.
Only after its program has been examined by the Assembly of the Republic will the government be fully functional and, until then, it must limit itself to “carrying out acts that are strictly necessary to ensure the management of public affairs”.
