The Ministry of Finance waits to receive the decision of the Council of State regarding the uniformed officers to see the number of the officers and the amount of money that the Ministry should return to and calculate the cost on the budget and how it will be covered.

Even though the decision regarding the unconstitutional reductions in the salaries of the uniformed officers was taken in January, it was issued on Friday and the Ministry of Finance will receive the official document on Monday.

The government’s economic team committed that it will implement the decision.

Based on the implementation range of the decision (military, police, coastguard, firefighters, etc.) and the retroactivity, the Ministry will see if the cost of this decision would be “acceptable” or “unbearable” for the budget. Theoretically the amount could reach 1 billion, but sources of the Ministry of Finance estimate that the amount will be around 500 million euros.

The government will discuss with Troika in order to determine how the extra costs that were not included in the budget for this year will be covered.

If the amount was up to 150 million, no additional measures would probably be needed, as this would be covered by the primary surplus of the year.

If the amount is higher, Troika and government have agreed to implement the solution that was implemented for the first time in Portugal in a similar case. According to this, the cost will be covered by those who have received the raise based on a judicial decision through other equivalent measures, so as the burden of the unscheduled return of money will not fell on everyone else.