According to the Associação Portuguesa de Centros Comerciais (Portuguese Association of Shopping Centres), shopping centres «can guarantee their visitors and collaborators all safety conditions, following the rules established by the Government and the recommendations from the Direção Geral da Saúde (Portuguese Health Authority), as was seen during the state of emergency and now, during stages 1 and 2 of the economy’s reopening plan.
«We have the expectation that, on the 1st of June, shopping centres and their traders will not be discriminated once again when compared to other retail spaces and may have their businesses fully open», stated António Sampaio de Mattos, president of the Association.
The APCC defends that additional support measures for the sector will be needed, in order to mitigate the consequences of this pandemic, such as flexibilization in terms of submitting VAT; suspension and extension of payments for other taxes (such as IMI (Municipal Real Estate Tax), IRC (Corporate Income Tax), fees, contributions and special consumption taxes) during the state of the emergency period; loan payments moratoriums and the reduction of electricity and water bills and their respective flat fees since the beginning of the state of emergency up until two months after the commerce general reopening.