Amid a heated debate in which the opposition and the government measured their strength, the Congress of the Republic held the first round of voting on the amount of the General Budget of the Nation for next year, which according to the proposal of the Ministry of Finance should be $523 billion, while various parties are asking for it to be lowered by at least $12 billion to avoid a financing law.
The session on Wednesday was adjourned due to a lack of agreement.
After more than five hours of exchanging positions, the congressmen did not reach an agreement under the terms required by law, which is why the official proposal of the Petro government was rejected and the session was suspended until Thursday – September 11 – to discuss the next step.
This session of the joint economic commissions was marked by strong differences that led to the collapse of five of the seven proposals that were presented to lower the Budget, including that of the President of Congress, Efraín Cepeda, who regretted that his idea of conducting the talks without haste or pressure for a financing law or tax reform was not supported.
Ricardo Bonilla, Minister of Finance.
THE TIME
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