The Minister of Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, said this Friday, November 7, that he is opposed to any elimination of tolls and warned that parliament will decide, through proposed amendments to the State Budget, whether there will be a surplus or deficit in 2026.
“The user-pays principle should be followed”, argued Miranda Sarmento at the hearing within the scope of the specialized assessment of the State Budget proposal for 2026 (OE2026), arguing that these infrastructures have Public-Private Partnership contracts with “significant charges for the State and large maintenance costs”.
For the minister, these infrastructures “provide a service to users that must be paid for by them”, which is why he opposes “any elimination of tolls”.
“The PS decided to do it with Chega, not taking into account that these are taxes from everyone who is paying the millions”, he recalled.
Miranda Sarmento also warned that there is a budget constraint, pointing out: “Choices need to be made, it is important that parliament remembers”.
Referring to the “amendment proposals that the different parliamentary groups have already presented or will still present during today”, Miranda Sarmento said it is up to the deputies to know whether they want to maintain the Budget as proposed, with a surplus of 0.1% of GDP that allows “to execute 0.8% of GDP in PRR loans”, or whether they prefer not to have a surplus.
“Parliament will decide whether it wants the budget that comes out of this parliament to maintain this balance of 0.1% or whether, on the contrary, it will have a deficit,” he said.
“We made a Budget to reduce taxes, to implement the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) and, with that, we have a budget balance of around 260 million euros, which corresponds to 0.1% of GDP. And it is with this budgetary margin that parliament has to work”, he highlighted.
According to the OE2026 proposal, the executive intends to achieve surpluses of 0.3% of GDP in 2025 and 0.1% in 2026.
Revenue from EDP’s dam business is temporary
The Finance Minister also warned that the 335.2 million euros to be raised by the State from the sale of six EDP dams to Engie are temporary revenue, which should not be used to finance structural expenses.
Miranda Sarmento was confronted by Chega’s bench about statements he made this week about the collection of revenue by the Tax and Customs Authority (AT), as he said it was untimely to count on taxes “in the coming years”.
To clarify what he said on Wednesday, Miranda Sarmento explained that he had been asked about the collection of revenue in 2026 – since the AT has one year to settle the missing taxes –, clarifying that “even if the tax authority settles it, any taxpayer has the right to litigate and provide a guarantee”, so “it is not liquid” for the revenue to enter the public coffers in 2026.
“It could come in between 2026 or it could come in 2027 or 2028 or 2029, depending on what the taxpayer decides [fazer]”, these.
In any case, the minister says that this revenue should always be seen as temporary, because it depends on an economic operation that is not repeated.
“If there is eventually this revenue, I hope that no one remembers to finance structural expenses – which continue for many years – with revenue that, if it happens, happens once”, he explained.
“That transaction occurred once, it could give effect to paying taxes. There may be revenue in 2026 in that amount, but it is temporary revenue. I hope that no one in parliament remembers financing structural expenses with revenue that occurred only once”, he insisted.
The team from the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) that investigated the operation together with AT inspectors concluded that the deal did not have criminal implications (taking into account that the authorities were aware of it).
The Public Prosecutor’s Office ended up dismissing the suspicions of the crime of tax fraud, but understood that the way in which the sale operation took place, through a split followed by a merger, does not exempt EDP from paying 335.2 million euros, including Stamp Tax, IMT and IRC, plus interest.
In response to the PSD bench, the Minister of Finance reaffirmed that the Government was not notified of the decision – and that it did not have to be – and highlighted that, if the news made public is confirmed, the Tax Authority has one year to comply with the Public Prosecutor’s order and settle the outstanding taxes.
On Thursday, the executive president of EDP said that the group had not yet been notified of the Public Ministry’s decision and assured that it “will pay the taxes that are required”, although “it reserves the right to decide based on what is determined”.
The investigation was led by the Public Ministry, with the participation of tax inspectors as criminal police bodies.
In this context, although ruling out suspicions of tax crime, the DCIAP prosecutors considered that the contours of the transaction imply the payment of taxes and, therefore, determined that the AT must “proceed to collect the missing taxes that have not been paid”, reads the final part of the order to which Lusa had access.
In total, the MP calculates that the State has to receive 120.9 million in Stamp Tax, 99.6 million euros in IMT (Municipal Tax on Onerous Property Transfers) and 114.7 million euros in IRC.
The business investigated concerns the sale of the Miranda, Bemposta, Picote, Foz Tua, Baixo Sabor and Feiticeiro dams, which the Portuguese electricity company sold at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 for 2,200 million euros to a French Movhera consortium, formed by the companies Engie (40%), Crédit Agricole Assurances (35%) and Mirova – Grupo Natixis (25%).
IUC in February helps people “don’t forget” to pay
The Government wants to set February as the IUC payment month for those who have to pay up to 100 euros, believing that it will help people “not forget” to pay on time, explains the Minister of Finance.
Joaquim Miranda Sarmento justified the change proposed by the executive as being a “fiscal simplification” measure.
“It seems to us that it will improve the way taxes are paid, because it will make people not forget and [evitar que] pay fines”, justified Miranda Sarmento.
Currently, IUC is paid in the month the vehicle is registered.
The change to a fixed date is one of the 30 measures in the “agenda for fiscal simplification” that the first Government of Luís Montenegro presented in January 2025.
At the time, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento had already justified the change with the fact that “many people” forget “what month they bought a car”, ending up paying late and having to pay fines.
Today in parliament, he recalled that the Government will propose to the Assembly of the Republic that “payment be made in February” if the amount does not exceed 100 euros, or that the amount be “split between February and October” if the total to be paid to the State is higher.
“The assembly will decide whether or not it wants to make this change,” he said, alluding to the fact that taxation rules, as is the case, are a prerogative of the deputies.
In response to questions from Chega’s bench, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento rejected the existence of any measure to increase the IUC for cars prior to 2007 and explained that the only change that the executive intends to make involves this change regarding the moment in which car owners pay the tax.
Miranda Sarmento insisted that there is no proposal in OE2026, nor in any other initiative, to worsen the IUC.