Ministerial Order 107-A/2023, of April 18, brought forward a new update to the meal allowance for civil servants and workers in public functions, setting it at €6.00 and taking effect on January 1, 2023.
According to the same, this update occurs due to the current context of inflation that directly affects the purchasing power of workers and the need to contribute to the mitigation of its effects by strengthening the social benefits to be granted by the public employer in terms of sharing the costs of meals.
Thus, since January 1, 2023, the meal allowance is excluded from taxation under IRS and TSU up to 6.00€, if paid in the pay slip, and up to 9.60€ if paid through meal vouchers/cards.
Decree-Law no. 57-B/84, of February 20
Decree-Law no. 305/77, of July 29th , instituted the attribution of a uniform meal subsidy to all Civil Service employees and agents, as long as they worked full time. Its fundamental objective was to put an end to the inequalities detected as a result of the discretionary and diversified concession of meal subsidy schemes and meals in kind. The regime of this subsidy, which determined its constant payment for the 12 months of the year, even though reported to 11 months, led to this benefit being configured as a true salary complement. However, the attribution of the meal subsidy was not accompanied by the necessary measures for the rationalized implementation of canteens and the redimensioning of existing ones, which in practice led to situations of relative injustice, which urgently need to be corrected.
Thus, it is the Government's understanding that it should revise the meal allowance regime, giving it the nature of a social benefit to be granted as a share in the expenses resulting from a meal taken away from one's habitual residence, on days when work is actually performed. However, and given the peculiarity of special schedule situations, it was necessary to contemplate them autonomously, even though most of them are considered to fit the general attribution requirements demanded by the present law. As a corrective measure to the distortions that affect the social situation of Public Administration workers, reducing the cost of meals borne by those who do not yet have access to canteens, the amount of the meal subsidy has been brought closer to the overall price of meals.
