With time on the calendar pressing and with less than a week to achieve concrete progress before the regular sessions end, the Ministry of Finance put its foot on the accelerator to try to save the financing law and to know whether or not it will have the $12 billion that it needs for the 2025 National Budget.
This, according to sources from the Executive, after the new head of this portfolio, Diego Guevara, established as a priority to proceed with the filing of the presentation and make the effort to comply with this process, before the December 16, the day congressmen go on vacation, if nothing extraordinary happens.
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The Ministry is fully aware of the pressure of the schedule and the need to act quickly to avoid complications. Likewise, they want to avoid a scenario where the failure to file a formal Government presentation opens the door to extraordinary sessions being called to vote on the two negative proposals that are already in place, and send a clear and forceful message.
Change in calendar
With the above in mind, the Congress of the Republic is making changes to his schedule to focus on the tax initiative for the remainder of the week. Added to this is that, this Monday, December 9, the presentation was filed to debate the presentation of the financing law in the Economic Commissions of Congress.
The person in charge of its filing was the representative of the Green Alliance Olga Lucía Velásquez.
National budget debate
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Proof of this is the communication that was sent, also this Monday, in which the members of the economic commissions are informed that the agenda for Tuesday, December 10, will focus solely on the financing law and the events that were planned will be postponed. ready for that day, as Portafolio learned.
It must also be said that it is still not known if this project will have the prominence that was expected during the extraordinary sessions, since they will be summoned, for now, to define the future of the agrarian jurisdiction, another of President Gustavo Petro’s bets in his social reforms.
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Legislative sources consulted said that the bets are on the initiative falling during its passage through the Senate, taking into account that the Third Commission made it clear that the chances of success are very small, since of the 16 members of this team 11 They have said that they will vote against, which would automatically result in failure, as they do not have the required support.
It is worth remembering that the financing law, being linked to the Budget General of the Nation of 2025, requires the endorsements of the two Third and Fourth commissions, of the Senate and Chamber, which are popularly known as the economic commissions. Without these four supports, the project would fail due to lack of consensus.
Calendar
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Although it is already clear that an eventual debate on the financing law would require extra sessions in Congress, they warned that if this document is not filed by this week at the latest, it would be difficult to pass it before December 31 and therefore it would be would fall, putting the State treasury in trouble again.
They will insist until the end
Despite the headwind, within the Ministry of Finance the order is not to give up, since President Petro himself has entrusted them with securing the resources needed for the 2025 National Budget and preventing The change of head of the entity represents a setback for the social commitment of the National Government.
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Such has been the interest and urgency to move forward with the tax changes, that in recent days important changes have been made to the original text, so as not to modify the tax base of the wealth tax, leaving gradualness in online games of luck and chance , or maintain the VAT exemption for hybrid vehicles.
In case the financing law finally collapses, The National Government will have no other way than to remember the $12 billion that depends on this project in the General Budget of the Nation or else it is exposed to these accounts falling for violating the constitutional principle of fiscal balance.
Colombian pesos
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To put it simply, the laws governing the PGN require that income cannot be less than expenses. This is in order to guarantee that the stability of public finances is maintained and in the future we will not depend as much on debt, as is happening at the moment, to guarantee that the State fulfills its projects.
This is why, among the moves that have already been made by the Ministry, there was a lunch by Diego Guevara with the congressmen of the commissions in charge and the announcement that they will not give up on approving the norm, while there is time and the senators and representatives can be summoned.
