Petition aims to prevent an increase in car tax

The 2024 State Budget (OE) includes an increase in the Single Circulation Tax, for cars before July 2007. The measure could increase the price of the tax by more than 200% on some vehicles. However, the Portuguese are unhappy with the measure.

By Bruno G. Santos, in News, Portugal · 26 Oct 2023, 12:02 · 0 Comments

Luís Machado created the petition “Against the expected increase in IUC for cars before 07-2007” (translated title), to alert deputies and ministers present in the Assembly of the Republic of the consequences that the tax increase could have on the Portuguese population.

Luís Machado told The Portugal News that “the petition against the increase in the IUC was written with a deep feeling of revolt, and rightly so.” At the time of publication of the article, the petition already had more than 330,000 signatures, a number that Luís Machado considers low, as many people may not have signed it due to some computer illiteracy.

The measure presented in OE2024 has an environmental objective, aiming to end the circulation of old cars which, consequently, end up being more polluting. However, Luís Machado emphasizes that “whenever we remove a vehicle from circulation and send it for scrap, there is a need to produce new vehicles, a process that, in turn, involves the extraction of natural resources from our planet for the manufacture of these cars.” The extraction of metals necessary to produce vehicles is associated “with serious environmental impacts that are highly destructive for the planet”, adds the creator of the petition.

Legitimate concern

Luís Machado stressed that anyone who has an old car does not do so on a “whim”. Anyone who keeps an old car usually has economic difficulties or a low budget that prevents them from purchasing a more recent model. According to Luís Machado, “This petition highlights a legitimate concern regarding social justice and the need for fiscal policies that do not worsen the living conditions of those who already find themselves in challenging financial situations.”

Still, in OE2024, 129 million euros were allocated to support the expenses of scrapping old vehicles, with an amount of 3 thousand euros being allocated per vehicle. Concerning this measure, Luís Machado states that the value presented only allows the scrapping of 43 thousand vehicles, considering that in Portugal there are “more than 3 million vehicles eligible for this incentive”, which is also stated in the document of OE2024. However, within the people, he knows, the creator of the petition states that “those who own vehicles manufactured before July 2007 will likely not be able to join this scrapping program due to financial constraints, which will lead them to face the burden of payment of this tax annually.”

According to the proposal for OE2024, “the reform will have a limit of €25 per vehicle in 2024, which will be progressively increased until the IUC rate represents the entire taxation related to the CO2 emitted by these vehicles.” In other words, an increase of 25 euros per year will be made to the IUC, until reaching the maximum value that can be attributed depending on the characteristics of the car in question. Luís Machado did the math and concluded that a vehicle that in 2023 paid €70.5 in IUC per year, with successive tax increases, could end up paying €799.09 per year.

The petition can be signed at https://peticaopublica.com/pview.aspx?pi=PT117993. The number of subscribers already allowed the topic to be debated in the Assembly of the Republic, giving some hope to the Portuguese.

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Deeply in love with music and with a guilty pleasure in criminal cases, Bruno G. Santos decided to study Journalism and Communication, hoping to combine both passions into writing. The journalist is also a passionate traveller who likes to write about other cultures and discover the various hidden gems from Portugal and the world. Press card: 8463.