The Executive and Congress reached a consensus last night regarding the draft Law of the Public Sector Budget for Fiscal Year 2023. This led Parliament to approve by majority (with the votes against and the majority of the left in abstention) the budget for the year 2023 amounting to S/214,790’274,052. That is, a growth of 9% if compared to this year.
The document, which included modifications with respect to the original legislative proposal of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), was accepted with 77 votes in favor, 11 against and 13 abstentions, a few hours after the last date for its approval.
The problem for the approval of the budget was that, days ago, the Minister of Economy, Kurt Burneo, warned that additional expenses of S/1,164 million were being added from Parliament, charged to the Contingency Reserve, a fund destined for emergencies , such as natural disasters, and demanded greater fiscal responsibility from legislators. However, yesterday, after a modification to the opinion of the Budget Committee, the Executive approved the final proposal and a consensus was reached with Parliament.
Thus, the initiative approved last night does not affect the Contingency Reserve and, according to the head of the MEF, Kurt Burneo, respects “the budget balance and the fiscal rule.” However, it does include some of the measures requested, such as resources for the Glass of Milk and Common Pots, for which S/100 million were allocated for each item.
Burneo stated that the increase in the budget is a consequence of the increase in resources for public investment, since S/54 billion have been allocated for this purpose.
Sectors and regions
Regarding sectors, Education shows an increase in its budget of 16.9% compared to that of 2022. In the case of Health, the increase is 7.9%.
In Transportation and Security, increases were also observed, which in these cases were 4.6% and 7.7%, respectively.
Some of the changes made to the original MEF proposal are related to the resources allocated to regional governments. Initially, an amount of just over S/42,277 million was established. However, in the end they were increased to S/43,870 million. The difference (S/1,593 million) was deducted from the national government budget and is intended mainly for current spending (salaries and others).
The vice president of the Budget Committee, José Arriola (AP), indicated that the break that was initially related to the declarations of Kurt Burneo and the Contingency Reserve had been overcome.
“That is over. No (the Contingency Reserve is going to be touched) and every detail of the budget has to be assumed by the specifications, ”he assured.
Data
-The Plenary of Congress also approved the Debt Law for 2023 with 66 votes in favor; and the Financial Balance Law with 78 votes in favor.
-The budget, according to Burneo, has prioritized Education, Health, Transport and Communications and Justice.
