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The Government guarantees that “there is no provision or authorization” in the State Budget for 2021 (OE2021) “there is no direct loan from the State” to Novo Banco. The Minister of State and Finance, João Leão, assures that the budget proposal does not authorize loans “either through taxes or by direct means of the State” to Novo Banco and that no direct support is foreseen in the coming years, “.
“The question that was posed to the government about the Resolution Fund, even by the parliamentary partners, was not wanting the state to make a direct loan. We achieve that next year no direct loan from the State is foreseen or authorized in the OE ”, said João Leão, in an interview with radio“ TSF ”, about the possibility of having a loan from the State to the Resolution Fund in 2021 for inject into Novo Banco.
João Leão reiterated that there will be no loan from the State to the Resolution Fund, neither “through taxes or directly from the State.” “IGCP [Agência de Gestão da Tesouraria e da Dívida Pública] or Portuguese taxes will not directly finance any fund of the Fund “, he stressed.
“What is foreseen in these 275 million is a loan from the banks to the Resolution Fund to make, according to the needs, such an injection to Novo Banco with the limit entered in the budget of 475 million. The payment needs of this debt have been satisfied over the years by the banks. Each year, the banks pay a significant amount of interest to the State and finance the needs of the Resolution Fund ”, he explained.
According to João Leão, taxpayers will not be obliged to pay these 275 million euros and what the State has done in the past was to “lend” money and “not transfer”. The Minister of Finance also stressed that “no direct support is foreseen in this or in the coming years” to the Resolution Fund to finance Novo Banco and guaranteed that “the Fund is in a position to repay the debt contracted” without the need for more loans. .
Regarding the loan of 275 million euros that the banks will make to the Resolution Fund, the government official said that it will be returned in 2046 and there is no risk that the Resolution Fund will have to borrow from the State to repay this loan. “The Resolution Fund lives off the banks’ own contributions. The simulations carried out do not anticipate any need, ”he said.
Asked about the fact that these 275 million euros will go into deficit, João Leão said that it is “a purely statistical question.” “By decisions of the statistical authorities of Statistics Portugal, following the rules established by Eurostat. The Fund, being a financial sector entity, was reclassified and entered the scope of public accounts. Only due to this statistical effect this entity affects the debt and the deficit ”, he explained.
Statements contradict leader of the Left Bloc
João Leão’s statements deny the leader of the Left Bloc (BE), Catarina Martins, who went so far as to say that the Minister of Finance was clear in acknowledging that OE2021 “delivers 200 million euros from the Resolution Fund”, to which he adds the bank loan to the Resolution Fund, which “must be paid by the State.”
“I focus on what the people with whom we have negotiated the State Budget and with whom we have had meetings and sought solutions have told me. I observe that the Minister of Finance recognizes that this State Budget delivers 200 million euros from the Resolution Fund, with public money, to go to the New Bank, to which is added the loan that the banks make to the Resolution Fund “, he said Catarina. Martins, this Friday.
This Friday, the Socialist Party (PS) also accused the BE coordinator of “lying” by saying that OE2021 will not “advance further” in the fight against poverty due to the injection of capital to Novo Banco. The parliamentary group PS guarantees that “OE2021 does not foresee the transfer of public money to the Resolution Fund so that it can be remitted to Novo Banco”.
“These charges are based on a lie and that lie must be undone. We cannot stop denouncing him, ”said the vice president of the PS parliamentary group, João Paulo Correia.
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