Miranda do Douro, Portugal, Sept. 25, 2024 (Lusa) - The Terra de Miranda Culture Movement (MCTM) warned on Wednesday that the government would let the €400 million in taxes owed on the sale of the six dams in Trás-os-Montes expire at the end of the year.

"The government will let the Stamp Duty, Corporation Tax and Surcharge due on the dam deal lapse. Despite constant warnings from this Movement, they will expire at the end of this year. It's more than €400 million in total, including €110 million in Stamp Duty," an MCTM source told Lusa.

In a statement sent to Lusa, the MCTM warned "that almost four years have passed and three governments, including this one, have unfortunately done nothing to demand the due taxes".

"The expiry date is during the mandate of this government, which has already had enough time to decide to the taxes should be paid. The current prime minister and finance minister will be personally responsible for the very serious damage they are doing to the people of Terra de Miranda and the Portuguese people, and will go down in history," the same note emphasises.

The civic movement said in the same statement that "so much inability and inaction has made it clear" that this is a concerted and malicious strategy to favour the concessionaires.

"Faced with very strong evidence of tax evasion, the state was legally obliged to carry out an immediate and rigorous tax investigation. But someone decided not to. No law legitimises this decision, so it is grossly illegal, discretionary and designed to favour the concessionaires and bend to their interests," reads the statement.

The MCTM recalled that the previous prime minister, António Costa, informed parliament in 2021 that a tax inspection of the deal was already underway, which Finance Minister João Leão subsequently confirmed.

"Recently, the parliament was informed that, after all, no tax inspection had been initiated. The decision not to inspect the business and not to demand the tax is illegal and unacceptable. They also tried to deceive us by saying that the criminal proceedings suspended the tax inspection. Still, the law says exactly the opposite: that both proceedings run in parallel and that tax inspection is an absolute priority. In all its splendour, this lapse reveals the contempt that the state and its politicians have for the people of Terra de Miranda," the MCTM said.

It also indicated "the servility and corruption to which the powers that be have allowed themselves to be subjected by the economic power of the concessionaires".

"All this is unacceptable in a civilised country and must stop. This Movement has no power to prosecute in the courts or in the public administration. We only have the power of speech, reason and the law. But we demand that our municipalities, which have this power, exercise it without fear or servility," according to the same document.

Lusa contacted the Ministry of Finance and the prime minister's office but has received no replies so far.

At the beginning of July, the MCTM warned that the government could promote "a fiscal blackout" with the amendment to the IMI code relating to the valuation of dams.

"If the government goes ahead with the legislative change, there is a strong likelihood of a tax blackout. All the IMI from previous years relating to dam transactions will disappear. Therefore, the announcement by the Minister of Finance [Joaquim Miranda Sarmento] will be a great deal for the concessionaires because it contains in itself a real wipe-out of this tax on dams," said Graciano Paulo, a member of the MCTM at the time.

At the end of June, the government announced the creation of a working group to develop a "technical and structural solution" to change the IMI code regarding the valuation of dams.

Finance Minister Joaquim Miranda Sarmento explained at the time that the aim of this working group is to come up with a solution to change the IMI code to establish clear rules for the valuation of hydroelectric dams.

At the beginning of May, the municipalities of Mogadouro, Miranda do Douro, Torre de Moncorvo, and Carrazeda de Ansiães asked the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Mirandela to challenge the AT's assessment of the Feiticeiro, Baixo Sabor, and Foz Tua dams, considering them undervalued.

FYP/ADB // ADB.

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