The first cases of the tax being imposed emerged this week in northern Portugal, when scores of home and business owners received notifications from Infrastructures of Portugal (IP) via the GNR informing them to pay the tax or face fines.
Respected northern newspaper Jornal de Notícias (JN) reported how dozens of proprietors in Cabeceiros de Basto, in Braga, who have properties with direct access onto one of the three national roads in the county – the EN205, EN206 and EN210 – are incensed after receiving letters from the GNR instructing them to “rectify the situation”, which could entail paying taxes of up to €500.
The tax is part of the new National Road Network Statute, announced last April, payable to Infrastructures of Portugal. The ordinance that set the rates was published six months later, in October 2015.
In practical terms it will see the owners of private or commercial properties with direct access-ways, garages or driveways leading directly on to ‘EN’ roads, paying up to €500 to licence them.
According to JN, should a proprietor wish to carry out work to the access it will cost €500 to inform of the procedure, €250 for an extraordinary inspection, and €300 for the revalidation or authorisation, added to which, JN states, there are annual taxes for the occupation and use of land that could go up to €4 per square metre.
One year on and it seems the measure which regulates the “nominal private use” of EN driveways is beginning to be enforced.
In Cabeceiros de Bastos the proprietors were given 30 days to pay the tax or face fines of up to €2,500 in the case of private individuals, or €5,000 in the case of collectively-owned set-ups.
João Castro, who owns a clothes store and lives above the property on the EN205, told JN the measure is an “abuse”.
“We are angry because we already pay lots of taxes and now they want to charge more taxes. One of these days we’ll just be working to pay our dues”, he said.
Fellow trader Miguel Alves, who owns a car stand 200 metres down the road, told the newspaper “I understand people paying the tax because the amounts are laughable. But it is yet another tax and this one honestly does not make sense.”
Mr Alves said that while he does not agree with the tax, “I will pay it so I can work legally.”
Cabeceiros de Bastos Mayor, Francisco Alves, has already asked the government and the President of the Republic to suspend the law, which he sees as a way of financing IP.
“I hope there is a way to reverse this but we are talking about taxes of significant values. It is an annual tax, for life, which makes no sense”, he accused.
Other northern municipalities including Seia, Póvoa do Varzim and Gondomar, have also openly criticised the measure.
The National Association for Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) told JN it opposes the tax.
In a document seen by JN, Rui Solheiro, secretary-general of the ANMP, said the taxes are “clearly disproportional” and questioned the financial and economic foundations on which the calculations are based.
It further considers the legislation behind the taxes confusing: “The scope in which some of the taxes are applied is not clear”, the document said.
Nuno Oliveira Garcia, a lawyer specialising in fiscal law echoed this view, telling JN “the value is not clear, nor how it is calculated, or what it is indexed to.”
“It’s very poor”, he concluded.
Various heads of councils in the Porto Metropolitan Area have also criticised IP’s “taxes and little taxes”, JN reported, saying the law needs to be revised to stop what it termed an “injustice.”
The same Statute also stipulates that taxes should be paid to IP for religious processions wanting to use national EN roads as part of their routes.
According to JN, fees of between €200 and €500 have been set for such instances, resulting in many local processions opting for a change in course.
In comments to Lusa News Agency, Infrastructures of Portugal (IP) said, regarding the National Road Network Statute, it is merely “upholding the legislation in force since last year.”
An official spokesperson for IP explained to Lusa that the rules applied by the public company stem from the Statute that came into force last year and the table with the respective rates was only published in October, from when the company started notifying the owners of properties covered by the regulation in question.
The Portugal News contacted the AMAL Algarve Inter-municipal Community for its views on the law and to see how, if at all, it could affect the region, given that the Algarve is home to the EN125 – one of the longest and busiest trans-regional national roads in the country.
A spokesperson for the association said a meeting is due to be held on 5 December to discuss the matter.