It is the clearest indictment of the government’s ongoing policies of austerity. Despite the “brutal tax increases” brought in under the current administration, fiscal receipts have dropped in relation to GDP – in stark contrast to what is happening elsewhere in the EC.
The stark news was reported in financial website Dinheiro Digital following the publication of new data by Eurostat.
Eurostat shows how fiscal receipts (including money paid into Social Security) rose by an average of almost a full percentage point in Europe across the board in 2012 (from 2011’s 38.8% of GDP to 39.4%), and by even more in the heart of the eurozone (up to 40.4% of GDP).
But in Portugal, “despite the brutal increase in taxes”, the average dropped from 33.2% in 2011 to 32.4% in 2012.
Indeed, the Eurostat report identified Portugal as being the country with the largest fall in fiscal receipts in relation to GDP.
As the statistics office explains: “Taxes on work make up the greatest slice of fiscal receipts for most countries.”
Thus the fact that Portugal has lost thousands of jobs and companies since the beginning of austerity suggests the two situations are connected.
