Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the COVID-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.
Factsheet for measure PT-2021-52/2875 – Updated – measures in Portugal
Country | Portugal , applies nationwide |
Time period | Temporary, 23 December 2021 – 05 June 2023 |
Context | COVID-19, War in Ukraine, Green Transition |
Type | Legislations or other statutory regulations |
Category |
Promoting the economic, labour market and social recovery into a green future
– Support for fuel expenses |
Author | Ana Teixeira - CESIS |
Measure added | 14 September 2022 (updated 10 July 2023) |
The Portuguese government issued a set of measures to support families and consumers amid the rising prices of fuel and other energy products, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
The recent ordinance is one of the several measures approved by the Portuguese government to support citizens during the current period of rising energy and fuel prices.
The Law 82-D/2014 of 31 December approves the Reform of Green Fiscal Affairs and adds article 92 A, which adds a carbon tax on some fuel and energy products. This measure freezes the value of the tax addition, setting it to the value it was at in 2021.
The Ordinance 315/2021 of 23 December suspends the update of the tax addition on carbon emissions until 31 March 2022. This measure is extended until 30 June 2022 by the Ordinance 118/2022 of 23 March. This measure has additional extensions with the Ordinance 167-A/2022, of 30 June (extends measure until 31 August 2022), and Ordinance 217-A/2022 of 31 August (extends measure until 2 October 2022). On 5 September the government announced that the suspension of the updated carbon taxes will continue until the end of the year (Government Press Release, 5 September 2022).
The measure maintains the 2021 tax addition on carbon emissions. This value is €23,921 per ton of CO2, according to the terms set by the Ordinance 277/2020 of 4 December. The measure avoids a rise of 5 cents per litter of fuel (both gasoline and diesel). The value of the addition tax is set annually on the basis of the prices of auctions of licenses of gas emissions of greenhouse effect, held within the framework of the European Commerce of License Emissions (Comércio Europeu de Licenças de Emissão (CELE)).
According to the newspaper Dinheiro Vivo this measure costs €93 million (Dinheiro Vivo, 22 October 2021). The extension of the measure until the end of the year will cost an additional €537 million (Dinheiro Vivo, 6 September 2022).
The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.
01 May 2023 |
According to a Government Press Release dated of 28 April 2023, a decision was made on the partial suspension of the carbon tax update. The reference price of diesel and petrol is currently below the price that justified the initial mitigation measures at the ISP level and fuel consumption in the first quarter of 2023 reached a record high of the last decade. Moreover, fuel taxation in Portugal is significantly below the weighted average of the Eurozone. Therefore, the Government will proceed with the gradual unfreezing of the update of the addition on CO2 emissions (carbon tax). Order 113-B/2023 established that this measure shall take effect between 1 May and 5 June 2023. |
04 April 2023 |
Order 99-A/2023 suspends the updating of the rate of the addition on CO2 emissions. This Order takes effect between 4 April and 17 April 2023. |
No information to date.
Workers | Businesses | Citizens |
---|---|---|
Does not apply to workers | Does not apply to businesses | Applies to all citizens |
Actors | Funding |
---|---|
National government
|
National funds
|
Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:
Trade unions | Employers' organisations | |
---|---|---|
Role | No involvement | No involvement |
Form | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
No involvement of any social partner organisations in the design, implementation and monitoring of the measure.
Unknown.
Citation
Eurofound (2022), Freeze on the update of the carbon emissions tax addition, measure PT-2021-52/2875 (measures in Portugal), EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/cases/PT-2021-52_2875.html
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