AUTOvoucher support can start to be used this Wednesday, November 10th, and will be in effect until March of next year.
The measure, which was approved by the Council of Ministers about two weeks ago, provides for a monthly discount of 10 cents per liter of fuel, up to a total of 50 liters (maximum of five euros per month).
To access this discount, it is necessary to register on the IVAucher platform — over 330,000 people have registered since the AUTOvoucher was announced — and make the payment “through a payment method eligible by the operator and in a minimum amount to be defined by order of the member of the Government responsible for the area of finance”, can be read in the decree-law published this Monday in Diário da República.
This minimum has already been clarified in the meantime, in statements to the Public, by the Ministry of Finance, which clarified that "the minimum consumption is one cent".
No need to fill up
According to the aforementioned decree-law, in order to benefit from the AUTOvoucher, it is enough that "the consumer makes a payment in the purchase of goods and services" at merchants licensed as fuel service stations and who have, of course, adhered to this program. In total, there are already more than 2000 adherent posts.This means that, in fact, you don't even need to stock up to take advantage of this discount. Anyone who, for example, goes to a gas station to buy newspapers, tobacco or food can also benefit from this support, which the State has already made known will represent an expense of 133 million euros.
How it works?
Contrary to what was initially assumed, the amount received will not be subject to the volume supplied. The five euros monthly discount will soon be “delivered” after the first refueling of each month, even if this is only five liters, for example.
And even if between November 2021 and February 2022 they do not refuel at all or do not make any purchase, they can only refuel in March and will receive the full 25 euros, since the support accumulates from month to month if no purchase is registered with your NIF (tax number).
And speaking of TIN, it is important to clarify that it is not necessary to request an invoice with TIN, as the bank card associated with the AUTOvoucher registration already has this information. As with IVAucher, the support will be credited to the user's bank account within a maximum period of two days after payment at the gas station.
There are three mandatory rules
To access this discount, you must comply with three key rules:
- be registered on the IVAucher/AUTOvoucher platform (if you were already registered with IVAucher you do not need to register again);
- refuel (or make “shopping”) at a participating petrol station (you can consult the complete list of stations);
- pay with a bank card in your name and from one of the banks participating in the program (almost all banks operating in Portugal have joined).