The Minister of Economy and Finance, Azucena Arbeleche, presented this Thursday the Bill of Accounts before the General Assembly of Parliament.
It highlights that, of the US$225 million increase in social spending, US$45 million will go to education, US$27 million to security, US$26 million to the development of science and technology, and US$70 million to salary increases for public employees.
2021 closed with a deficit of $90,088,947,000 (Uruguayan pesos) in budget execution and $10,101,763,000 in extra-budgetary operations, resulting from the application of legal regulations.
Minister Arbeleche said at a press conference that she feels “very satisfied” with the exercise, and that “when they see the numbers, and where the resources are allocated, they will understand”.
“As the economy overcomes the health emergency, the administration promotes the gradual recovery of the purchasing power of salaries and pensions, both public and private”, says the explanatory memorandum, of 186 pages.
“Indeed, in 2022, given the inflationary escalation that affected not only Uruguay but the entire world, with particular emphasis on advanced countries, the government advanced the increases in public remuneration and liabilities, while requesting those sectors of activity in the private sector, without correction for inflation in 2022, to evaluate the possibility of advancing such corrections. Likewise, at the closing of this report, the government had reached an agreement with the union of the central public administration by 2025, for salary recovery above what is established in Article 4, and an agreement is being reached with the union of Education”, adds the document.
The announced repeal of the Media Law
The Rendering of Accounts includes in article 206 the express repeal of Law No. 19,307, approved on December 29, 2014, with its respective amending, concordant and regulatory provisions.
For the Executive of Lacalle, this law has “several unconstitutionalities” and, under that premise, it was that it enabled private cable operators to use ANTEL’s infrastructure to compete with it in internet services. Contrary to government claims, only two articles have been declared unconstitutional, as we explain in this note.
In the following article, the Surrender reinstates the following decree-laws:
- Decree-Law No. 14670on radio and television broadcasting.
- Decree-Hey No. 14,671who created the program “Advice on policy formulation, coordination and control of radio and cable television services”.
- Law No. 18232, on the right to freedom of expression in community broadcasting. Specifically, it reinstates articles 15 (Creation of the Honorary Advisory Council for Community Broadcasting) and 16 (confirmation and integration of said council).
