The bill proposed by the opposition parties in Portugal was turned down by the Portuguese Republic to abolish the Golden Visa Scheme. After a report of anti-corruption organization Transparency International in October 2018 the opposition proposed the bill.
As per the report the Golden Visa scheme was a gateway to Europe for corrupt people and money laundering. Americas, China, Russia and Turkey were the major investors . The major investments made in properties went on contributing to increase the pressure on the real estate market and was less responsible for job creation.
However, the attempt of the two far-left Portuguese parties to shun the scheme via a motion at the parliament did not see light of the day. Instead the MPs wanted to widen the scheme with the addition of a new category known as the ‘green visas’.
Andre Silva, a lawmaker from the PAN animal-rights and environmental party highlighted the need for the country to create a new scheme to allure the foreigners to make investment in areas of ecological nature.
It was important to create an additional scheme to attract foreign investment of an ecological nature while considering the importance of reinforcing the multicultural and open society.
With a minimum investment of €500,000 in organic agriculture, ecotourism, renewable energy and other environmental projects the new category of Golden Visa will allow the foreigners to obtain Portuguese residency.
The ‘Green Visa’ could create more risks as they were not clearly defined nor was there any procedure that could certify that these investments were made as mentioned by Joao Paulo Batalha, president, Transparency International Portugal’s (TI PT).
This would be creating even more risks beyond those identified by Transparency International without any kind of assurance that the investment was coming in the country.
Those visitors investing in properties, set up tech companies and create new jobs were offered the Portuguese Golden visas.
