The Government announced this Monday that it will provide a credit line of one billion euros to municipalities to resolve medium and long-term debts. A measure that "is positive", despite already coming "a little late" and requiring "a series of extensive procedures" that should not allow municipalities to have money in the account "before the end of the year", considered the president of camera of Faro Macario Correia.
At the head of a local authority that is going through deep financial difficulties, the president of AMAL, who is also the president, considered that "it's better late than never." In the case of the Chamber of Faro, this credit line could even definitively unlock the advance towards the Financial Rebalancing Plan that the executive of Macário Correia intends to implement.
«The Financial Rebalancing Plan can, to a large extent, be resolved with this fund. We would have access to money on much more advantageous terms than using private banking. But we will have to go through vast procedures", that is, which should postpone the process "a few months", said the mayor to the Sul Informação.
Macário Correia believes that the 48 million euros that the plan already presented and approved by the Court of Auditors indicates as necessary to pay off debts of the Faro municipality (which, in some cases, date back to 2001) «can be fully covered by this credit line », but admits that he still has «to understand exactly how it works».
The announced credit line, which results from an agreement between the Government and the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), is intended for the payment of debts "over 90 days" and obliges its beneficiaries to create a restructuring plan financial.
The measure comes two weeks after the ANMP gave instructions to its members, the Municipal Chambers, to bring legal actions against the Portuguese State due to the withholding of 5 percent of the Municipal Property Tax (IMI), decreed by the Government in April, with effects already this month.
Despite admitting that these instructions "seem to have fallen", Macário Correia is not willing to relinquish this amount, which he considers to be money to which local authorities "are entitled". "The State is financing itself at the expense of the municipalities, with the retention of IMI and the increase in VAT on electricity," he defended again.
In Portimão, the news of the new credit line of one billion euros for municipalities was well received, as it is one of the most indebted municipal councils in the country and has been waiting, for more than a year, for the approval of a Financial Sanitation Plan, the second version of which has already been delivered to the Court of Auditors.
Manuel da Luz says that the conditions imposed by the new credit line are “normal, because they translate into what would be a Financial Rebalancing Plan”.
With the use of this measure of support, guarantees the socialist mayor, the Chambers will be able to “inject money into the local economy”, paying off short-term debts, which affect mainly small and medium-sized companies.
As for the requirement that, on the other hand, Councils that resort to the new support line have to raise all their taxes and fees, Manuel da Luz recalls that, «in practice, in Portimão we already have urban fees and local taxes on the ceiling. maximum, as well as we have the water rate close to the reality of the costs» So, he admits, the residents will not be sorry.
However, there is still room for improvement: «Portimão had no surcharge, a tax that is levied on corporate income tax. We will have to consider its application», added the mayor from Portimo.
As for the IMI, of which the State wants to retain 5 percent, allegedly to cover the expenses that the state machinery has with the ongoing revaluation of assets, Portimão was one of the Chambers that, following the ANMP recommendation, had contested and filed a injunction.
But one of the conditions for the municipalities to have access to the new support is precisely that they give up all court actions against the State, as was announced yesterday by Minister Miguel Relvas. Therefore, Portimão will have to withdraw its injunction.
Manuel da Luz is not very open to this, but he admits that, “if it is a sine qua non”, then he will have to give in. In any case, the Algarvian mayor says he will wait until next Thursday, the day when there will be a meeting of the Board of Directors and the General Council of ANMP. "The issue of IMI will still be open until Thursday," he said.
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