In order to avoid a new socioeconomic setback in the face of the biggest challenges such as price increases and the slowdown, The resources contemplated for the fiscal period of 2024 are currently higher than those of this year.
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The draft of the General Budget of the Nation for next year that was filed before the Third and Fourth House and Senate committees provides some 435 billion pesos, 7.2 percent more than the amount of 405.6 billion pesos for this 2023 and 5 percent above the 414.2 billion pesos to which it would arrive this year with the addition filed by the Minister of Finance, José Antonio Ocampo, and that will have to be debated in Congress.
At the moment, the figures that are provided are preliminary and will have to be perfected later due to the presentation of the 2023 Medium-Term Fiscal Framework, in mid-June, and the approval of the 2022-2026 National Development Plan, at most until on May 7. The final document must be presented at the beginning of the next legislature.
It must be taken into account that some entities did not report their investment, so some items could increase for the final project.
Of that total of 435 trillion pesos, the bill proposes securing resources for 103.1 trillion pesos to cover public debt service. For this item, 72 billion pesos were allocated in 2023 and with the budget addition it rose to 73 billion.
Cesar Melgarejo. TIME
Sectors with more resources
The sectors that will have more resources in the 2024 budget with the data handled by the Ministry of Finance at this time, and according to the calculations of EL TIEMPO, are that of education, with some 60.4 trillion pesos, 2 percent more than how it would be with the increase this year; followed by health, with 54.6 trillion pesos (+ 1.5 percent); that of Defense, with 52 billion pesos (15 billion pesos from the Police), and the heading of work, with 41.9 billion pesos (+ 6.9 percent).
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In the case of education, the ministry of this portfolio will have 59.25 billion pesos. For the Special Administrative Unit for School Feeding, 1.1 trillion pesos are requested and for the Technological School of the Central Technical Institute, 46,286 million pesos.
In the field of health, the ministry would be left with 52.7 billion pesos. For example, Invima is requesting resources for 341,674 million pesos; the National Institute of Health, 105,014 million pesos, and the National Health Superintendence, 327,763 million pesos.
The Ministry of Labor contemplates resources for 37.04 billion pesos, and the National Apprenticeship Service (Sena) requested 4.8 billion pesos.
It is followed by finance, with 27.7 trillion pesos; transportation, with 22.3 trillion pesos; Social Prosperity has 16.1 trillion pesos.
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The mining and energy category appears with 8.4 trillion pesos; the Judicial Branch, with 7.2 trillion pesos; and the Prosecutor’s Office, with 6.4 billion pesos. The housing sector also appears, with 5.9 trillion pesos, and the justice sector, with 4.4 trillion pesos.
among those who would lose
In the draft there are several sectors that appear for now with a lower budget compared to this year. For example, for science, 257,202 million pesos are proposed, that is, 50 percent less than the 516,000 million pesos that are in the Budget for this 2023 with the budget addition included.
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The same happens with culture, for which 466,899 million pesos are contemplated, while for this year there were some 807,000 million pesos, or for sport, which has 949,000 million pesos, a figure less than 550,000 million pesos. . Agriculture as a sector also has a lower figure, with 1.9 trillion pesoswhile in this year’s budget addiction he appeared with more than 7 trillion pesos.