The Council of Ministers today approved the 2017 draft State Budget after a 10 hour session.
The agreed document will be delivered to the National Assembly on Friday where it will be presented by Minister of Finance, Mario Centeno.
The general ideas contained in the budget were presented to the various political parties by Centeno on Wednesday.
At the end of a series of meetings, the Secretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Pedro Nuno Santos, said that there has been much negotiation with the parties to enable the Government to come up with an agreed final version and stated that in 2017 “the tax burden will fall.”
The government's idea is that workers and pensioners get more to spend through tax cuts and pension increases, and then can choose what to spend their money on. Taxes on many goods, the so called 'indirect taxes', will be rising to counter the lower income tax rates.
The proposed State Budget for 2017 will be discussed in Parliament on the 3rd and 4th of November with a full debate scheduled for November 24, 25 and 28.
According to the timetable, November 29 will mark the end of debate and the budget will go to the vote.
