This law, initially proposed by the Liberal Initiative (IL), had been approved by parliament in a final global vote in May 2023 and was expected to come into force on July 1, 2024. However, to date, the legislation remains unimplemented, which led IL to send a question to the Minister of Finance, in September, asking when “the Government anticipates that it will be possible to apply the law”.
Now, in response to the IL, the office of the Minister of State and Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, states that, when the Government took office, “there was not yet any service contract for the IT developments necessary for the operationalisation” of the law in question.
“This contract was concluded at the beginning of July 2024. The expected deadline for completing these projects, which are highly complex, is December 31, 2024, and the first phase relating to the application of the new rules for calculating the fines and the suspension of ongoing processes, in order to avoid issuing notifications with previously valid fine amounts”, says the response.
The Finance Minister's office also ensures that “all administrative offense and tax enforcement proceedings that were in progress or pending on July 1, 2024, will be covered by the application of the most favourable rules”.
“In this way, these fines will be recalculated in all cases pending on July 1st. Finally, it should be noted that any payments made after this date will be refunded, automatically, for the amount that exceeds the amount due in view of the recalculated values”, it is also highlighted.
The law in question, approved by parliament in May 2023 and promulgated by the President of the Republic in July of that year, reduces the fine for non-payment of tolls to a minimum amount "corresponding to five times the value of the respective toll fee", " but never less than 25 euros" and "with a maximum value corresponding to twice the minimum value of the fine" (i.e. 50 euros).
At the same time, it determines that, if the infractions are committed by the same agent, in the same month, using the same vehicle and on the same road infrastructure, the "maximum value of the fine is that corresponding to that of a single infraction", being the value minimum referred to "corresponding to the total toll fees, and costs of a value greater than those corresponding to a single infraction cannot be charged".
A transitional rule is envisaged that determines that for administrative offense proceedings and enforcement proceedings pending at the date of entry into force "the regime that, under the terms of the general law, appears most favourable to the accused or the executed person" will apply.
Total Gobbledegook.
JUST DO IT......please.
By Hugh from Alentejo on 30 Oct 2024, 12:27