Lisbon, Sept. 9, 2024 (Lusa) - The carbon tax in effect in Portugal has been updated again, according to a statute that comes into force on Monday, increasing it to €74.429 per tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) and so limiting anticipated decreases in the retail prices of fuel this week, in the wake of the recent falls in crude oil prices.
The decree, which was published on Sunday in the state gazette, the Diário da República, marks a continuation of the decision to reverse the previous freeze on the tax, so limiting the decline in diesel and petrol prices that would otherwise have taken effect this week.
In 2022, following a sharp rise in fuel prices, it was decided to suspend the updating of the surcharge on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions - the so-called carbon tax - leaving the value set for 2021 in force.
In May 2023, still under the previous, Socialist government and in view of some easing of prices that had begun to be felt at the time, the tax was updated. The move was halted in August of that year but resumed this year.
In the preamble to the statute that comes into force on Monday (identical to the one published last 23 August), the current, centre-right government argues that freezing the update of the CO2 emissions surcharge "was an exceptional measure" intended to support families and companies in the face of the extraordinary increase in the price of energy products, and stresses that the measure, in line with European Commission recommendations, "should be phased out as energy market developments allow" as part of efforts to hold down greenhouse gas emissions.
"Thus, considering the recent evolution of fuel prices and the evolution of the price resulting from auctions of greenhouse gas emission licences, in particular, with a downward trend in fuel prices and an increasing trajectory in the price of CO2 emissions," the text states, the government has resumed “the gradual unfreezing of the update of the CO2 emissions surcharge, maintaining a partial suspension of this update compared to the value of 83.524 euros that would be applicable in 2024.”
LT/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
