Port charges paid by exporters are to be eliminated at a cost to the Portuguese state of €25 million a year in lost revenue.
The Secretary of State for Transport confirmed also that other export charges still in force will not be increased this year.
Sérgio Monteiro, the Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Transport & Communications announced today that port charges levied on companies exporting goods from Portugal will be eliminated in a welcome move that is backdated to 1 January.
The minister said that the elimination of the charges could be viewed as a €25 million injection into the economy, adding that there are no plans to drop any other export taxation rates.
Portugal’s exports have been an area of economic good news in the past two years, although much exported is low value bulk materials such as cement and agricultural produce, and assembled cars whose parts were imported to begin with.
The export of fuels from the new Galp production facility in Sines is adding €1 billion a year to Portugal’s export tally, representing 10% of Portugal’s total exports.
