Background information

The Government approved a set of exceptional measures to support family income, with a view to mitigating the effects of inflation and the consequent increase in prices: the "Families First" package of measures.

Related measures include Reduction of VAT on electricity supply and Adherence to the regulated tariff for the sale of natural gas .

It was established by Law 24-D/2022 of 30 December (State Budget for 2023).

Content of measure

Article 169, paragraph 2 of Law 24-D/2022 of 30 December (State Budget for 2023) creates the Programme to Support Fare Reduction in Public Transport.

The Environmental Fund is authorized to transfer to the transport authorities up to an additional €50,000,000, to ensure the maintenance of existing prices in 2022 of public transport passes. Thus, as an exceptional measure to mitigate the effects of inflation, the prices of urban passes (PART and PROTransP) and travel tickets in regional and long-distance train transport will remain unchanged in 2023, avoiding a fare increase of around 8%.

The measure has an estimated annual cost of €66 million: around €50 million for passes and around €16 million for train journeys (regional and long-distance).

Use of measure

According to information released by the Government, around 1.2 million monthly passes are at stake.

It is estimated that in 2023 there will be more than 17 million individual journeys on regional and long-distance train transport.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Does not apply to businesses	Applies to all citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Informed	Informed
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

Social partners´ involvement took place in the context of the tripartite Permanent Commission of Social Concertation (CPCS), which includes: government representatives; representatives of employer confederations, i.e., the Entrepreneurial Confederation of Portugal (CIP), the Confederation of Commerce and Services of Portugal (CCP), the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (CAP), and the Confederation of Portuguese Tourism (CTP); and the representatives of trade union confederations, i.e., the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP) and the General Union of Workers (UGT).

Views and reactions

CGTP considers that the Families First package of measures presented by the government do not guarantee the necessary response to the growing difficulties of workers and their families. The "price increase response plan" does not solve the day-to-day difficulties that workers and pensioners are facing.

UGT also expressed some criticism. Families First is an essential and welcome package of measures, even if it can only be considered late and clearly insufficient, something that is all the more evident when we analyse the sets of measures that were gradually taken by other countries, which were earlier and more intense in their intervention.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 06 September 2022: CGTP's reaction to Families First Package (www.cgtp.pt)
• 07 September 2022: UGT's reaction to Families First Package (www.ugt.pt)
• 30 December 2022: Lei n.º 24-D/2022 de 30 de dezembro (files.dre.pt)