Portuguese restaurant owners and retailers have joined together to form a new association whose mission is to save their sector. The Association of Retail and Catering Brands of Portugal is demanding reduced rents and the right to pay off VAT charges in installments. The grouping says it represents around two billion euros in turnover and more than 20 thousand jobs. Its first official act was to send the Ministry of Economy a document with nine measures intended to prevent the layoff of as many as 300,000 employees. The association said the current crisis had arisen when the government forced the stores to close, leading to an abrupt, massive decline in consumption of non-food items. It said the government must intervene to reduce the amount of rent store owners should have to be pay during the time when they couldn’t do any business.
