The opposition Social Democratic Party wants to call in all those responsible for running the country’s finances from 2011 to 2014, to uncover what really happened when €10 billion was transferred offshore from Portugal’s high street banks, without the taxman lifting a finger.
The left wing now wants to hear from Paulo Núncio, the Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs during the former government - and Fernando Rocha Andrade who currently hold this position to see if the government of the time deliberately allowed the transfers to leave the country without scrutiny.
These two will be heard by the Budget and Finance Committee and will be asked to shed some light on the transfers that went unnoticed by the tax authorities at the time of the PSD-CDS Pedro Passos Coelho coalition.
Between 2011 and 2014, the Tax and Customs Authority let about €10 billion leave Portugal for offshore tax havens without any kind of scrutiny. This huge financial outflow only now will be investigated by the General Inspectorate of Finance, on the expressed orders of the Ministry of Finance.
These transfers were not subject to any scrutiny by the tax authorities, although they were reported by the banks which are required to identify and report on money transfers made from Portugal to offshore accounts.
The Treasury is responsible for scrutinising these movements to detect, for example, any evidence of money laundering or tax evasion.
A day after Pedro Passos Coelho told parliament that he “wants to find out the truth,” the PSD party announced that it wants a "fast and profound clarification" on the escape of €10 billion to offshore accounts without any control by the treasury and it call all those responsible for the financial system since 2011, the year in which the PSD-CDS coalition took over.
The parliamentary leader, Luís Montenegro, says that after an "unprincipled insinuation by the prime minister" in the biweekly debate on Wednesday, the Social Democrats are "first and foremost interested that the whole truth is verified."
Montenegro added that "it is time" to accelerate "this process of inquiry in parliament" so that all those involved "can have the necessary information to understand what has happened."
Montenegro recalled that during the previous executive "there was no change of tax rules except those that raised penalties for fraud and tax evasion."
At a press conference held in Parliament this Thursday, the spokesman for the Socialist Party again referred to "possible political failure to control a set of transfers, as required by law."
Portugal’s President has commented that the transfer of €10 billion to tax havens without tax authority scrutiny is "a situation that deserves to be investigated.”
In addition, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa says that this case was also "a lesson for the future, because in the future we must avoid the occurrence of such situations."
The current Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs, Fernando Rocha Andrade, has confined himself to saying that the matter should be clarified with "serenity", expressing his willingness to clarify all the information at his disposal, "on the situation that existed and on the decisions that this Government was taking."
Former Secretary of State Paulo Nuncio has denied knowing anything about these unchecked offshore transfers, and said, "I think that if there has been information provided to the Tax Authority that was not properly analysed, the Inspectorate General of Finance, to whom the current Government requested an audit, should investigate the reasons."
