The parastatal publisher Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE) could once again see the budget it receives from the Federation for 2025 reduced, if the proposal for next year’s expenses, delivered to the Legislature last Friday by the Ministry of Finance, is approved without changes. and Public Credit (SHCP).
The Fund, headed by the writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II, would have an economic contribution from the Federation of 136.8 million pesos, which, compared to the 149 million pesos received in 2024, would mean a reduction of 13% in real terms, that is that is, considering the inflationary factor.
Now, it is possible that the FCE has additional resources via a different item, that of the Educal bookstore network, which, by presidential decree published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) in December 2023, was disincorporated from the programmatic structure of the Ministry of Culture (Ramo 48) and was incorporated into that of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP, Branch 11), on which the Fund also depends.
However, it was until the budget distribution of the recently presented Federal Expenditure Budget Project (PPEF) for fiscal year 2025 that Educal stopped appearing in Branch 48 and was considered within Branch 11.
The merger of Educal and the Economic Culture Fund was an intention announced by the Presidency of the last administration, but it could not be fully realized. Now, at least in the 2025 budget forecasts, both the FCE and Educal have separate resources, but are expected to operate under the direction of the Fund.
If so, the FCE would have these additional operating resources to add a total of 180.6 million pesos assigned by the Federation.
It should be noted that the resources that the FCE receives from the SHCP are allocated only for two items: personal services and operating expenses.
And in addition to the 136.8 million pesos proposed for the FCE in 2025, the parastatal publisher will be able to count on its own resources generated by the sale of goods and services in 2024, which amount to 286 million 794,705 pesos, in addition to some 23.6 million of pesos available to begin operations for the year.
With all of the above, it is expected that the FCE will have a total of resources, with the sum of the federal contribution through the PEF, its own resources and the initial availability, of 447 million 252,060 pesos, the second highest availability of resources for the FCE in the last decade. Furthermore, the resources indicated above in the budget forecast for Educal should not be left out of the field of vision.
Indigenous languages and peoples
Another factor to highlight within Ramo 11 in the PPEF 2025, but as a decentralized public organization, is the appearance for the first time of the University of Indigenous Languages of Mexico (ULIM), also as a parastatal entity, for which It proposes a minimum resource of 1.75 million pesos, in addition to the incorporation of the own or self-generated resources of 2024, which was 600,000 pesos, which would give a total operating budget in 2025 of 2.35 million pesos.
The ULIM was inaugurated in October 2023, although not in its own headquarters but in a building provided by Coneval, given that the works at the physical headquarters in the town of Santa Ana Tlacotenco, Milpa Alta, in Mexico City, did not have started.
The ULIM started with the implementation of a single degree, Teaching of Indigenous Languages, and recently the second, Interpretation and Translation in Indigenous Languages, was incorporated. It is unknown if there is an additional budget planned for the physical investment of the headquarters building.
The National Institute of Indigenous Peoples (INPI) has been responsible for the investment expenses of the ULIM in its first year of operations.
By the way, in the PPEF 2025 the Treasury proposes the allocation of 4,856 million 110,312 pesos, which represents a considerable increase, of 7.7% in real terms, compared to the 4,321.5 million pesos designated in 2024.
Now, of those 4,856 million pesos proposed for the INPI in 2025, there are no resources reserved for physical investment that suggest that the institute will contribute money for the construction of the ULIM headquarters.
The opposite case to the ULIM is that of the National Institute of Indigenous Languages (Inali), which is sectored within Branch 48, Culture, and for which 76.4 million pesos are proposed for 2025 compared to 79.1 million pesos in 2024, which which represents a cut of 7.5% year-on-year.
