In Portugal, Jornal de Negocios reports the government – through the voices of the Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, and the Secretary of State for Tax Affairs, Cláudia Reis Duarte – defended in Parliament this Wednesday its decision to end the exemption regime that was in force in the country for advanced biofuels and renewable gases.
“The Government acted well – and in advance – in this matter. And proof of this is the fact that, after this decision was taken, the European Commission moved forward with infringement proceedings against Portugal for poor transposition of the directive that had been the basis the creation of the aforementioned regime”, argued the person responsible for the Energy portfolio, highlighting that “this exemption translated into a loss of tax revenue in the order of 100 million euros per year”.
Worse: “It was not, in any way, producing the intended effects”, since with this support in ISP there was a very significant increase in imports of palm oil residues from Asia and not a “boost” in the national production of advanced biofuels. , as would be expected.
Despite this, Graça Carvalho made it clear that “the Government is available to consider a compromise solution that allows maintaining the tax incentive for renewable gases” , which already have support totaling 255 million euros in three notices. The minister also announced that the Biomethane Working Group “should be formed within the next few days”.
Tags: Portugal, renewable gases
Category: Policy
