Portugal’s minister of infrastructure and housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, said on Monday in Lisbon that the carbon tax of two euros applied to passengers on international flights and cruise ships will go ahead in the second half of the year.
Attending ‘Aviation Day’, an initiative organised by the National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC), as part of the Portuguese presidency of the Council of the European Union, Pedro Nuno Santos said that “in the second half of the year, a new tax will be applied to passengers,” following the “unstoppable” commitment to have a greener environment and a greener aviation sector.
According to the law, published in Diário da República on 16 February, which creates the carbon taxes on air and sea travel, this tariff will begin to apply on 1 July, covering the “taxable events occurring on or after” this date.
By the end of September 2022, the government will also present to parliament a study on the economic and environmental impact of these taxes.
According to Pedro Nuno Santos, this tax will pump “millions of euros” into the Environmental Fund, contributing to the energy transition and a “stronger and more sustainable” society.
The People, Animal and Nature party has proposed that this revenue be used to finance the railways “and reduce emissions from the road sector, namely by improving and increasing the availability of collective transport and transport methods with lower CO2 [carbon dioxide] emissions”.
The tax is levied on “commercial passenger air transport tickets departing from airports and aerodromes in Portugal and on the docking of passenger ships at port terminals in mainland Portugal for the fuelling, repair, boarding or disembarking of passengers”.
This tax does not apply to children under two years of age, nor public passenger transport within the scope of maritime and river transport or to air transport of residents of the autonomous regions between the mainland and the respective region and within the respective region.
It also excludes “ro-ro passenger ships and landings or anchorages for technical reasons, meteorological reasons or similar contingencies”.
