The plenary sessions of the Senate and House of Representatives, separately, approved last Wednesday the general budget of the Nation for the period 2024, for a value of 502.6 billion pesos. It is determined that 310 billion will be allocated to operation (61.8%), $94.5 billion for debt payment (18.8%) and 97.7 billion for investment (19.4%). Now, among those that will have the most money are Education (70.4 billion pesos), Health (61.5 billion pesos), Defense and Police (56 billion pesos), Treasury (47.5 billion pesos) and Labor (44.3 billion pesos). The absurd thing is that science, technology and innovation had their funding reduced. There was widespread controversy in this Wednesday’s session in the House due to the rejection of a proposal that sought to increase resources in the budget for the Ministry of Sciences. The proposal did not have the support of the Historical Pact and there were immediately complaints about Gustavo Petro’s campaign promises about greater resources for this portfolio. Economic development presents an uncertain outlook in the medium future.
Thus, as this budget is proposed, some strategic sectors of the country, such as health and defense, are defunded for their normal functioning. The bureaucratic burden increases during the current four-year period, which generates uncertainty in financing it. Absurd to increase 10 thousand new positions in the Dian to increase coercive collection by 15 billion pesos and strengthen tax revenues. Likewise, it is expected to raise 15 billion pesos in the hydrocarbon sector, but as long as the clumsiness of prohibiting the exploration and exploitation of new deposits of this natural resource persists, these income are uncertain. With this, the fiscal rule that must be maintained is broken.
Furthermore, the decrease in the indicators of the country’s different productive activities, which is reflected in the low growth that the GDP has had during the first half of 2023, means that an increase in tax revenue is not seen in the short term. . So far this year, according to the report published the previous week by Fedesarrollo, people’s bankruptcy applications increased by 44%. The times of crisis facing the country and the legislative changes that have greatly favored debtors are generating a panorama that draws the attention of experts, since more and more Colombians are declaring bankruptcy and taking refuge. to the Financial Insolvency Law. There are already 4,500 citizens who have declared themselves in this state. The question that arises, where are they going to get the money to finance this budget for the next term, given the current situation of the Colombian economy?