Decree-Law no. 191/2014 of 31 December - Contractual Regime for Investment
On 31 December 2014 was published the Decree-Law no. 191/2014, which establishes a special regime in order to grant support and incentives to large investment projects, framed within the scope of attributions of Agência para o Investimento e Comércio Externo de Portugal, E.P.E. (AICEP), also designated as Contractual Regime for Investment. It repeals the Decree-Law no. 203/2003 of 10 September, given the need of harmonization with (i) national and european new framework regarding financial and tax incentives in the period of 2014-2020, and (ii) relevant legislation published since then, such as the Public Procurement Code.
This regime allows the award of a set of financial incentives, tax benefits and other specific measures to reduce context costs (costs with specialized labour shortage, costs related to distance from sources of know-how and innovation, or public investment in infrastructures) to large investment projects with special and strategic interest to national economy.
Among the main innovations addressed in the new Contractual Regime for Investment, we would like to highlight the following:
(a) expansion of the concept of large investment projects. This regime is now available to: (i) projects which value exceeds 25 million euro; and (ii) projects not reaching the abovementioned amount but submitted by an enterprise with an annual consolidated turnover of more than 75 million euro, or by a non-business entity with an annual budget exceeding 40 million euro;
(b) ongoing monitoring of projects which received aid and benefits by a permanent committee of investors support;
(c) alteration of the framework of renegotiation and termination of contract, in order to provide unilateral alteration and termination of contract on public interest grounds, according with articles 312.º and 334.º of the Public Procurement Code, as well as unilateral termination of contract on the part of the project promoter, in accordance with article 332.º of the Public Procurement Code.
The Decree-Law no. 191/2014 of 31 December is available here.
