Although almost all sectors will be given more resources this year thanks to the budget increase of 16.9 trillion pesos that took place on Thursday at midnight in the extra sessions of Congress, there are several who have remained dissatisfied and have set off the alarms.
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acemi, a health union that brings together the EPS of the contributory regime, warned that the 2.02 trillion pesos that were approved are not enough and that the sector would be underfunded. It must be remembered that the new resources would be added to the 50.2 billion pesos already approved for this year.
“We have great concern. We estimate that there are about 10.45 trillion pesos that are required (in the reduction) to make the financial closing of this year, “said its president, Paula Acosta, who sent a letter to the Minister of Health himself on Thursday without success , Guillermo Alfonso Jaramillo, and that of the Treasury, Ricardo Bonilla.
In the letter, the union indicated that by 2022 the situation in the sector was already unsustainable and that at the rate that the execution of the resources is going, they would only last until July. After that date, according to Acemi, users and patients would be left unattended.
Paula Acosta, president of Acemi.
In the same tune, the president of the National Association of Businessmen of Colombia (Andi), Bruce Mac Mastersaid yesterday that the IPS are already owed at this time transfers for about 3.5 trillion pesos, an issue that worries experts due to the possible fiscal unsustainability of the sector.
Another who has been dissatisfied with what was approved is the director of the Dian, Luis Carlos Reyes, who was given 200,000 million pesos less than promised. The entity requested 300,000 million to expand its staff and thus be tougher in its fight against tax evasion and avoidance. However, they only added 100,000 million pesos.
Dian’s goal is to have some 10,207 more employees, and 7,000 of them were expected to join this year, but now with these fewer resources the entity will have to do the math to make the best decision.
Luis Carlos Reyes, director of the Dian.
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“The commitment acquired in the tax with the Dian anti-evasion plant is not reflected in the budget improvement that only maintains 100,000 of the 300,000 million pesos that were initially affected,” said Senator Clara López.
Although the Mining and Energy sector will receive an additional 1.4 trillion pesos, of which 1.17 trillion will go to the shortfall in energy and gas subsidies for homes in strata 1, 2 and 3, that money would not be enough either.
For companies affiliated with asocodis I spend a deficit of 2.3 trillion pesos. With the addition, these companies would be receiving about 900,000 million pesos, with which there would still be a deficit of 1.4 trillion pesos, which represents about five months,” explained José Camilo Manzur, president of the union.
The winners of the improvement
In total, Congress gave the green light to a project that adds 16.9 billion pesos to the already approved 405.6 billion for this year. That is, the Budget will remain with 422.5 billion pesos.
The idea is that the sectors will have more resources to give the economy a boost in the midst of the expected slowdown. Therefore, everyone except the Sport, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Intelligence branch and the Registrar’s Office money was added to them, which will have to be executed in the second half of the year.
Of course, the resources delivered will be less than the claims that the congressmen have. These filed hundreds of proposals with spending demands for 79.3 billion pesos, which according to the Ministry of Finance forced an exhaustive prioritization.
“The additional resources approved will be allocated to attend, as a priority, fines such as comprehensive rural reform, the fight against hunger and food security, strengthening housing subsidies, promoting the multipurpose cadastreimprove the infrastructure and expand the coverage of free education, among others”, highlighted Minister Bonilla.
It stands out that the sectors that were left with a greater budget addition for this 2023 were Education (+ 2.19 trillion pesos), Health (+ 2.02 trillion pesos) and Housing, City and Territory (+ 1 ,50 billion pesos).
The Minister of Housing, City and Territory, Catalina Velasco, thanked Congress for these increased resources and said that she used one billion pesos to cover the Mi Casa Ya program and the other half a billion for Change my House.
The Minister of Housing said that the Mi Casa Ya subsidies are guaranteed.
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“Thanks to these resources, 75,000 Mi Casa Ya subsidies will be disbursed this year and thus we solve the budgetary problem that we inherited. Those families that already have their credit, their savings and their real estate business are going to have the housing subsidy”, he stated.
For Transportation, an additional 1.44 trillion pesos would go this year, for Mines and Energy, another 1.40 trillion pesos, the agricultural sector would receive 1.31 trillion pesos and the Treasury sector, 1.2 trillion pesos.
Also the category of Defense and Police will have an additional 940,000 million pesos; that of Labor, 928,000 million pesos; that of Social Inclusion, 724,000 million pesos, and that of Environment, another 603,000 million pesos.
Lifeguards for mass transportation systems
The budget improvement debate was not without controversy. One of the articles that was most discussed among the congressmen was the one that authorizes the Government to rescue mass transit systems in capital cities.
The Nation will allocate resources from the General Budget to finance the operational deficits of systems such as transmilenio in an amount not less than one trillion pesos.
Specifically, the article says that the territorial authorities will have to determine the adverse economic effects derived from their current costs in order to advance from now until the end of the year the renegotiations of the conditions and distribution of risks of the contracts with the operators and concessionaires. private.
The articles also authorize Findeter to grant direct loans to distribution and commercialization companies of electrical energy. According to the Government, this measure seeks to guarantee the liquidity of these companies, in the face of risks such as the El Niño phenomenon.
Likewise, it brings an article so that the balances of the General System of Participations not committed to health can be used for the development of collective interventions within the framework of Primary Health Care. Senator Paloma Valencia classified him as a “monkey” and said that he “violates” regional autonomy by taking resources from departments and municipalities.
