With this diploma, the socialists propose that the 6% VAT rate be applied "to the first 200 kWh of electrical energy consumed each month, doubling the current 100 kWh. In the case of large families, it doubles from the current 150 kWh to 300 kWh per month.

"This is a measure that, in general terms, corresponds to what is provided for in our electoral program. We admit to making it viable", a Chega parliamentary group official told Lusa news agency today.

Chega's electoral program foresees the "application of the reduced VAT rate to electricity and gas" and, on the other hand, the implementation "of a social energy tariff for large families, considering the first 200 kWh consumed per family each month, provided that the contracted power does not exceed 10.35kVA".

Bernardo Blanco, coordinator of the Liberal Initiative Parliamentary Group in the Budget and Finance Committee, told Lusa news agency that his parliamentary group "will approve all projects that propose a reduction in electricity VAT".

"We already voted like this in the previous legislature. Electricity VAT increased during the troika period. This emergency situation is over. The current tax is extremely regressive, penalizing citizens with lower incomes. And the State, riding the wave of inflation, has been collecting a high volume of extraordinary revenue", he argued.

In addition to Chega and IL, the PS diploma should also be made viable by the parliamentary groups to the left of the socialists, which also present projects to reduce electricity VAT.

Speaking to Lusa news agency, the coordinator of the PS parliamentary group in the Parliamentary Committee on Economy, Hugo Costa, argued that the project now presented by the socialists "has a budgetary impact already estimated in the macroeconomic scenario presented by the party".

"It is a project that is part of our electoral commitments and has significant social importance in the fight against energy poverty", argued Hugo Costa, before pointing out that the price of electricity, "mainly as a result of measures taken by the previous Government, has been on a downward trajectory".

"With this project, we are deepening measures that we had already presented previously", the socialist deputy also justified.

In addition to the PS project, under debate, on Friday, there will be projects from Chega, Iniciativa Liberal, PAN, Bloco de Esquerda, PCP and Livre for the reduction of electricity VAT to 6%. Livre's diploma extends the VAT reduction to gas, the PCP's covers "energy and telecommunications", and the PAN's aims to "combat energy poverty by expanding the beneficiaries of social electricity and natural gas supply tariffs".

A source from the socialist parliamentary group's leadership told Lusa news agency that the PS "has reservations about projects with a high budgetary impact".

PSD and CDS-PP, the parties that make up the Government, do not have any diploma under discussion in this debate, but the social democratic parliamentary group is concerned about the political attitude of parliamentary groups such as IL and Chega towards the PS project.

Bernardo Blanco, who on Friday will defend the Liberal Initiative project that proposes reducing electricity VAT to the reduced rate of 6%, estimated at 300 million euros per year the loss of revenue that will occur if his diploma is approved.

The leader of the Liberal Initiative also said that the Liberal Initiative "did not speak to the Government" about reducing energy VAT.

"We had already presented projects to reduce electricity VAT. Now, due to the PS scheduling, we are resuming our proposal", he added.

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