The Liberal Initiative (IL) this Thursday asked the government for official figures for the Bilhar Solidarity program, which would reportedly be a “failure” given that it should be assessed before the measure is relaunched.
“The government has announced that it is going to restart the Solidarity Bottle program, and before restarting the program, it is important to understand how the previous one went, because the decision to restart it without announcing the results and effectiveness of the program is not the best way to engage in politics,” the MP said. from IL Bernardo Blanco in a statement to the Lusa agency.
The Liberals sent a number of questions through Parliament to the Ministry of Environment and Climate on the Solidarity Bilgar program, which provides for a monthly fee of ten euros per cylinder of gas for recipients of the social energy tariff and minimum social payments.
One of the questions IL wants clarification is how many families have taken advantage of this program.
“There are still no official numbers, so we are asking for these program numbers, but from what has been reported, the program was a real ‘failure’. [fracasso] “, condemned.
According to Bernardo Blanco, this measure was supposed to “cover 400,000 families and only 8,000 families per month, about 2%”.
“Thus, in just three months, 25,000 bottles were produced, which gives about 250,000 euros, which is 6% of what the government has budgeted for this program, which is 4 million euros,” he listed.
According to the MP and Liberal leader’s analysis, “the government had no great intentions for the program to go well” because the four million euros budgeted would run out in just one month if all the families who could have access to support, did it. .
“The government already assumed that most families would not be able to access support, and also didn’t make much of an effort either in terms of distribution or in terms of the bureaucratic requirements that were necessary to facilitate them,” he lamented.
Bernardo Blanco pushed for a reduction in VAT on gas to 6%, which, being a universal and automatic measure, “would cover many more people” and ensure that those “400,000 families who really need support” get it.
“We would like to know the data as soon as possible before deciding whether this should be re-released or not in the form in which it is,” he explained.
On August 25, when he decided on the possibility of returning families and small businesses to the regulated gas market, Environment Minister Duarte Cordeiro had already announced the decision to restart the Bilhar Solidarity program, for which he had mobilized funding from the Environment Fund, and which had already entered into force. but had a low level of adherence.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
