President Gustavo Petro announced a cut in the operating expenses of the central government in 2024, due to the ruling of the Constitutional Court that overturned the deduction of royalties from the income tax of oil and mining companies.
This would be one of the measures contemplated to address the $6.5 billion deficit that next year’s budget will have.
The head of state said that the high court’s decision “removed a substantial part of the tax reform, and that has an impact, neither more nor less takes away $6.5 billion of income from next year. And it has an impact that undoubtedly is for me, because of the responsibility of knowing what we do.”
The president made this announcement when speaking at the installation of the XX National Infrastructure Congress, in Cartagena de Indias.
This ruling coincides with the fact that next year the first installment of the so-called Flash credit will be collected, which the previous administration took for 3 billion dollars payable in two years, and which made Colombia “the only country in the world that did so. to face Covid-19,” he explained.
The president added that in 2024 debt payments will increase from $70 billion to $96 billion, while the nation’s income will decrease by $6.5 billion.
“It is up to the Government to know what to do, where to cut, so that the blow is not fatal to the economy, because additionally, as we all know in the world and in Colombia we are stagnant, that is what is called the ‘storm.’ perfect’: it should not have happened, I realized it at some point,” he said.
He assured that he himself had already warned of the effects that such decisions could have.
“Whether they are legal or not, it is up to me to abide by them, I have no other option. “The President of the Republic abides by the decision of justice, because he defends a rule of law that he helped build in the National Constituent Assembly of 1991.”
Cut in operating expenses
The head of state insisted that next year’s ‘economic storm’ will not be erased, nor will the substantial growth in debt payment service or the fall in income that, in his opinion, did not need to fall with the ruling. judicial.
For this reason, it was regretted that two successes of the Government of Change will be affected: the growth of the investment budget in 2024, which went from $80 billion to $96 billion, despite the increase in the payment of debt service, and the inflation of this year, which will be less than 10%.
According to the head of state, it is an effort that is now being hit, because at the same time 6.5 billion now have to be cut. If you don’t want to hit investment, you have to go into operation, you can’t go into debt, you have to pay the debt next year by constitutional order.
In this regard, he pointed out that the operation of the National Government is basically Army and Police. “Then we touch a vertebra that is security, or high salaries, which is not enough to recover the 6.5 billion.”
Source: Presidency of the Republic
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