Not a huge amount in the news today, so a few comments on other matters.
The EU plans to significantly change the VAT system, in a way that could have adversley affected Madeira’s economy seem to have been blocked for now, thankfully. Plans for e-commerce sales to be taxed at the current rate in the country of consumption rather than the county of supply, would have made Madeira’s internet and communications businesses somewhat less attractive. Many companies set up here purely for the tax advantages.
Any change to tax laws have to have the unanimous backing of every countries EU Finance Minister, and as Luxembourg (along with Madeira) enjoys the lowest VAT rate in Europe, it’s a bit like Turkeys voting for Christmas, so hopefully that’s gone away for a few more years.
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Anyone noticed increased charges for the water supply recently? My very small bills of €3 per month have escalated to an out of control €5 per month. On close examination of the last few bills, I see the monthly metering charge has gone up by 5 times from €0.50 to €2.50. I am still waiting for my letter of notification …… horrendous!
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Hugo Chávez, the presidente of Venezuela was in Portugal yesterday, and remarked that he came to Madeira once and there were Venezuelan’s all over place. Given the recent controversies and discussions over whether Madeira should seek it’s independence, perhaps Sr. Chávez has long term plans to include Madeira in his empire. Already there certainly seems to be a strong bond between Madeira and Venezuela.
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Leaving the best ’till last … footie ….
Portugal need to not lose to Finland tonight to reach the European Championship 2008 finals, so a few locals will be rooted to the TV later on. Also, if the England team avoids defeat tonight they will also qualify … I certainly hope so, so they might end up in Portugals group in 2008. What a prospect – Rooney V Ronaldo round II !
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OK, one more thing … if anyone has read the recent blog article about the building of far too many high rise buildings in the west end of outer Funchal, it was referred to in that article as Choca-Bloca. It is with great pride that I can announce that a search on google.com using this term, comes up number 3. on the first page … so if the good people at Google like it, that’s good enough for me.
PS – I have no spell checker on my Blog generator, so when you spot a spelling error, yes it’s all my fault … there again a blog wouldn’t be a blog without a few grammatical and spelling errors.
OK, t'was a pipe dream. Only 1 happy England supporter today, McLaren sacked with 2.5 million quid pay off
http://www.madeira4u.com
–Der
Havent Noticed anything different in our water bill, it may be that you used alot of water in the summer , and as i believe, the bill we pay is in fact for the water 3 months ago, so November bill will be for water used in August, dont know if this is right but thats what a friend told me a while back….
–Tobi
<mailto:tobihughes@hotmail.com>
Havent Noticed anything different in our water bill, it may be that you used alot of water in the summer , and as i believe, the bill we pay is in fact for the water 3 months ago, so November bill will be for water used in August, dont know if this is right but thats what a friend told me a while back….
–Tobi
<mailto:tobihughes@hotmail.com>
it's the standing charge Tobi … but each council sets its own charges, so it may not affect anyone else over your way. You think they might have told people though! I went down there yesterday, and got a list of the charges, and what I didn't realise was that the cost of the actual water consumed goes up across 10 bands. For example a low user pays just 0.20€ (first 5 m3) whereas up the top end (over 100 m3) the unit cost is €2. That's what I call an incentive to save water!
http://www.madeira4u.com