The allocations to Education, Health, universities, retirement incentives and monetization resources raise questions in the Assembly.
The The Economic Regime Commission of the Assembly approved with five votes in favor (of Pachakutik, UNES and PSC) a motion to approve a report ratifying the first five observations made by the Legislature on the 2022 budget proforma and to the four-year schedule 2022-2025.
This report will be known by the plenary next week and based on this it will be determined if there are two-thirds of the votes to ratify said observations or if it passes through the Ministry of Law. The proforma cannot be denied by the Assembly.
Article 295 of the law indicates that if there are observations to the proforma and the Executive decides to ratify it, then the National Assembly, in the following ten days, may ratify its observations, in a single debate, with the vote of two thirds of its members. . “Otherwise, the programming or proforma sent in second instance by the Executive Branch will come into effect.”
The motion you received five favorable votes and four abstentions points out that they are ratified in the first five points (of the eight observations made) and that they had to do with the request for review of assignments for health, education, universities, retirement incentives, prison system and that it is clearly established how much could be obtained for the assets that the State intends to monetize in 2022.
It is that the Executive on November 27 sent a communication to the Assembly, ratifying its original proforma proposal and attaching a 57-page report from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, but without accepting any of them.
About the budget review request assigned to Health and Education, the Ministry of Economy and Finance explained that the increases ordered by the Constitution are being met. On the other hand, about the universities it is explained that the assignments they do increase from $ 1,105 million in 2021 to $ 1,129 million in the 2022 proforma.
Meanwhile, on the request to review the assignments for the retirement incentives, the Government clarifies to the Assembly that they are values that have been accumulated in previous governments, since 2008. However, it explains that what will be allocated in 2022 is what can be delivered while respecting fiscal sustainability.
There was also a concern on the part of the Assembly, regarding the explanation of how they have been established jail allowances. In this sense, the Government said that in total there is an increase from $ 108 million in 2021 to $ 124 million in 2022.
Another of the concerns of the assembly members had to do with thecertainty of obtaining resources for $ 940 million of non-permanent income associated with monetization (concessions or sales of state assets). On this issue, the Government clarified that the possible assets to be monetized are the Esmeraldas Refinery, Termogás Machala, Sopladora, Monteverde and Banco del Pacífico. All of them amount to approximately $ 2,800 million, so what is obtained will depend on the agility of these processes. (I)
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