António Costa last weekend revealed the next State Budget, which is to be tabled for discussion this autumn, will include stipulations that will seek to help those who intend returning to Portugal.
The prime minister explained that citizens who return home up until 2020 will be entitled to a discount of 50 percent on their annual tax return.
This entitlement will be valid for between three to five years.
The measure applies to all those who left the country up until 2015, and will also see them able to deduct the entire costs of returning and housing expenses from their tax return.
As an example of bringing back some of the human resources lost to the country during the financial crisis, Costa used the case of the current Minister of Education as a case in point.
“We have already had success stories, such as me going to Cambridge to bring home a researcher like Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, which allowed us to now have an excellent Minister of Education.
“But we also have to create the right environment that makes it conducive for others to return, even if they are not the next Minister of Education”, added the prime minister.
António Costa also said that the Government will also look to cash in on the expertise of those returning, allowing them to “contribute to the development of the country, and have them serve the country through all the knowledge they have acquired, via their energy and all their strength.
“When we talk about the youth, and even the not so very young, we cannot forget that the country experienced dramatic moments, especially between 2011 and 2015, which saw many Portuguese forced to leave the country to find work.
“Freedom of movement is great, but there is an enormous difference between the freedom to leave and to leave out of necessity due to not having a job in Portugal”, reasoned António Costa.
Other areas identified by the prime minister in the upcoming budget as being a priority, were culture, which he pledged would receive its biggest slice of funding on record, while saying that science would also qualify for a substantial budgetary increase and that education would continue to receive strong investment.