Portugal: Bill promoted to tax “super profits” of food trading and distribution companies

Her government Portugal promotes billapproved by the cabinet, to tax the “excess profits” not only of energy groups, but also of trading and distribution companies foodas part of efforts to mitigate the impact of its rise inflation.

Following the agreement reached at European level to return some of the “surplus profits” of energy groups to households and businesses hit by inflated bills, Lisbon had expressed its intention to impose a tax of at least 33% on the “surplus profits” of energy giants.

Since then, Prime Minister Antonio Costa has raised the possibility of extending the measure to food trading and handling companies. “The windfall tax bill that we will introduce concerns groups not only in the energy sector, but also in the food trading and distribution sector, who have to pay for the profits they made unjustifiably during this inflationary crisis“, he had declared at the end of October during a debate in the plenary session of the Portuguese parliament on the 2023 budget.

The bill that will be submitted for a vote in parliament, where the Socialists have an absolute majority, “is intended to mitigate the direct financial impact of high product prices on the budgets of public bodies, consumers and businesses”.

Portugal’s consumer price index continued its upward trend in October, reaching 10.1% year-on-yearat the highest level since May 1992, according to data released last week by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).