Government aggravates sanctions in the financial sector and prohibits repeat offenders from exercising

Uthe aim of the changes is to “harden the fight against insider dealing and market manipulation with more demanding sanctions, which include, for example, that repeat administrators may be prohibited from exercising functions in the financial sector for a period between 10 and 12 years,” said the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, in a press conference after the meeting of the Council of Ministers.

The minister also said that the General Tax Law has been amended by extending the list of paradises in line with the European Union.

“What we have done is to amend the General Tax Law, using as a reference the list of tax havens of the European Union for jurisdictions that are not cooperative for tax purposes.”.

Leitão Amaro also announced changes to the Expropriation Code, allowing local action at the initiative of the municipalities.

“ We have adjusted in the Code of Expropriations the power to make decisions of expropriations that are decided locally on projects of initiative of the municipality itself, allowing the declaration of public utility to be carried out at a more decentralized level ", said.

In a more widespread perfection, the minister announced a reform of the capital market law “to make it more accessible and transparent”, considering that “it is a known problem in Portugal and Europe”.

The minister believes that there is “the difficulty of financing companies in the capital market, therefore excessive dependence on the banking market for financing”.

“ This is a particularly important difficulty for smaller companies, for whom all bureaucracy, all the paperwork involving participation in the capital market delays and hinders their entry into the capital market,” he said.