In the midst of a polarized and heated environment, where the Government’s efforts to convince Congress were unsuccessful, the economic commissions failed to approve the draft General Budget of the Nation for 2025, which now remains in a legal limbo in which it is not known if it will have a final chance until October 20 or it will have to be done by decree issued by the Casa de Nariño.
This is the first time in history that something like this has happened in the Senate and the House of Representatives, which focused on this occasion on pointing out the lack of transparency in the Ministry of Finance, as denounced by the opposition, and hidden intentions to lead the country to this scenario of fiscal uncertainty through ‘tricks’, As the president of the economic commissions, Jorge Eliécer Salazar, said in the session.
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The lack of a quorum was once again the main issue at the meeting of the economic committees, which on the last day of the deadline to achieve approval in the first debate of all the articles failed to declare the session permanent, which is why it had to be adjourned without a decision being made on whether or not to approve the Government’s proposal, thus opening the way to various legal possibilities, according to experts.
According to the former Minister of Finance and expert in budget law, Juan Camilo Restrepo, the process followed so far would serve as a legal basis for the processing of this project to continue until October 20 if the parties agree, while waiting to reach an agreement that avoids that the Budget be issued by Decree, as already indicated would be done by the Ministry of Finance.
2025 Budget Vote
“The fact that Congress does not agree with the Government on the amount of the budget does not mean that Congress has refused to issue the budget. Therefore, the hypothesis that the budget is intended to be issued by decree due to the latter’s reluctance to issue the budget is not a constitutionally valid reason,” he said.
In this sense, Restrepo Salazar explained that “the only different hypothesis The only reason the budget has to be issued is that Congress has not yet issued it by midnight on October 20. But we will only see that on that date. Furthermore, the discussion that arose was the fault of the Government, which is trying to include in the budget amount both the certain income from the basic budget, as well as the contingent income from a tax reform of “$12 billion.”
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Government strengthens its position
According to the arguments of several sectors of the economic commissions that disagreed with the project, the fact that it had been presented at the last minute, that the allocations for the regions had been changed and the transfer of resources that compromised funds from the National Registry, were some of the elements that they did not like about the proposal, as well as the fact that the amount of $523 billion had been maintained, tied to the financing law.
After what happened, the Minister of Finance, Ricardo Bonilla, stated that The refusal of the last session made it clear that they want to sink the budget and because of this they will go by decree, for which they will be governed by what is established in the law and maintaining the accounts that were not liked by the Legislature.
Debate on the amount of the General National Budget.
“What the law says is that since there was no debate in the first round, there are no adjustments, no modifications to the project submitted by the Government, it is this law that is issued by decree,” added this official.
However, for Alexander López, director of National Planning, the big loser is the Colombian people, given that “we are talking about money that should go to investments, to the development of programs to overcome poverty and to help families who today struggle against inequality and lack of opportunities.”
Former Vice Minister of Finance, Juan Alberto Londoño, also spoke out on this issue and said that without a doubt, “under all assumptions, democracy loses and the country loses,” while criticizing the fact that the Budget had been linked to the financing law, which was interpreted as a blank check.
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“We must ask ourselves if the Government always played against the approval the budget so that it can be issued by decree and make adjustments at will to the expenditure that is underfunded and has mocked Congress. Likewise, it must be decided right now whether a financing law can be processed with a budget approved by decree,” he added.
What’s next?
To better understand what is happening and what should be expected with the definition of the budget amount, Professor Henry Amorocho from the University of Rosario, an expert in Public Finance, indicated that Congress must complete several critical steps before October 19, starting with the fact that the organic law establishes that the process continues its course, beginning with the discussions in the plenary sessions of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Budget.
“In the event that the Budget is not approved because the budget was not put in place, Agreed, but not due to negligence on the part of Congress, it seems to me, I think that the amount to be approved by decree is a figure of $511 billion and the financing law would not operate because it is not the responsibility of the President of the Republic to create income by decree,” said this analyst.
Sources who spoke to Portafolio made it clear that the hypotheses contemplated in Article 348 of the Constitution do not authorize the Government to issue the budget for the coming year by decree, since Congress has not refused to issue the budget and has simply disagreed with the amount that should be approved.
Because of this, they called on the members of the economic commissions and the delegates of the Casa de Nariño to take on the task of seeking points of agreement and prevent all their differences from ending up triggering a fiscal crisis. which calls into question risk ratings and investor confidence in the future.
