Portugal’s hotel catering and restaurant association AHRESP is threatening to file a complaint with the European Court of Justice over the government’s insistence on keeping VAT rates sky high.
The association is incensed over what it calls the government’s “disrespect” for EU directives. It claims the government has failed to apply the Small Business Act – designed to support small and medium-sized businesses.
In a meeting with Portuguese President Cavaco Silva, the beleaguered association stressed the precarious socio-economic crisis of the nation’s hotels and restaurants.
It maintains there are ways the government could have helped the sector recover, and the record-high VAT rate of 23% is certainly not one of them.
Threatening to promote debates on the subject during the upcoming European election campaign, the association said it feels it has “exhausted all its options in Portugal”, and so it will have no alternative but to seek help from international authorities.
