In an interview with newspaper Público, Minister Fernandes said the new taxes and superfund would “aggregate a minimum revenue of €165 million to reinforce collective transport and intervene along the Portuguese coast and flood areas, for example.”
He added: “This fund has predicted minimum revenue of €165 million. I say minimum revenue because the fund is also fed by landfill waste disposal rates and by revenue from carbon licence auctions, where growth is expected.”
According to João Matos Fernandes, funds will be channelled into four fundamental areas: mitigating climate change, with a very strong focus on promoting public transport and the introduction and enhancement of electric mobility; adapting to climate change, as “Portugal is a country that suffers those consequences”; water resources and their protection and, lastly, the conservation of nature and biodiversity.
The Minister explained the €165 million will be sought mainly from the “Portuguese carbon fund, which lives essentially off revenue from carbon auctions, from the environment intervention fund, of the biodiversity fund (which obtained revenue associated with plastic bags), and water resources taxes.”
However, João Matos Fernandes elaborated, other sources of funding “are being evaluated, which in the future, could add to the superfund”, which should be approved at the latest in June, and come into force in January next year.
João Matos Fernandes indicated that the new rates are being configured
within the realm of “green taxes” and aim to “benefit environmentally positive behaviour, in a context of fiscal neutrality.”
In the interview, the minister also said that he wants to penalise behaviour that is damaging to the environment, such as hunting with lead shots, and also acknowledged that “there is no way to cancel major dam projects without paying compensation.”
With regard to the multinational online transportation network company Uber, which has come to rival taxi services, the Minister said “we will not close our eyes, we do not pretend that things do not exist, but the way the activity is carried out - and I repeat, it is not the platform itself, but the transport contracted through Uber - does not follow Portuguese rules.”
The Environment Minister last week met with taxi drivers to talk, among other things, about the activity of Uber in Portugal.