The estimated impact of the reduction on the council budget amounts to around €1.5 million and will see rates down by between 10 percent and 20 percent in accordance with an as yet undetermined ratio of children.
Speaking at the same event, Councillor João Paulo Saraiva added that the process was “going to be completely automatic,” and hence “nobody needed to request” the discount.
The municipal council budget features income of €586.3 million against the €562.5 budgeted for this year while capital revenues rise from €106.6 million to €155.3 million with the latter boosted by the effects of the sale of the Feira Popular site, a now abandoned fairground in central Lisbon.
Among the big ticket items on the expenditure side are housing with €24.75 million, including a programme designed to ensure accessible housing and bring 5,000 families into the city as well as €18.7 million attributed to renovating and refurbishing the city’s network of squares and public spaces.
Restoring cultural facilities, improving the riverside area and other historical areas and establishing green corridors and other proximity structures also feature on the outgoings side and accounting for €4.9 million, €2.2 million and €4.8 million.
Saraiva also told the press conference that the municipal council civil protection charge was coming into effect in October and “to be sent by the end of the month to the houses of property owners in the city of Lisbon.”
The protection levy is estimated to total in the region of €86 annually rising to €688 whenever the building is in a poor state of repair and €1,376 annually, that is 16 times the minimum value, whenever the building stands empty or in ruins.
The revenue resulting is due to be applied in the sector and will provide advance rescue posts, equipment, uniforms and vehicles out of the €18.9 million per year raised and replaces the Drainage Conservation and Maintenance Tax.