Deputies rule PPEF 2023; will go into full session this Tuesday

The Budget and Public Account Commission, of the Chamber of Deputies, approved tonight the opinion of the Federation Expenditure Budget Project (PPEF) 2023, with which it is expected that this Tuesday the discussion will begin in general in plenary of San Lázaro, to then reach the reserves of the different benches.

With 31 votes in favor and 24 against, the Commission approved the opinion in an alternative venue to the legislative chamber, this before the demonstrations and closures that took place in the building.

After almost five hours of discussion, one of the issues that generated the most controversy was the reallocation of spending proposed by the opinion, where the big loser is the INE, to pass more resources to the Welfare Pensions, which are part of the priority programs of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The cut to the INE, for 4,475 million pesos, is one more blow to this institute in charge of Lorenzo Córdova, and to democracy, asserted PAN member Héctor Saul Tellez.

“We regret that in this budget the voice of the open parliament is not heard (…) and only one voice is heard, which is that of the President of the Republic, who unfortunately dictates the budgetary policies to the majority parliamentary group,” he asserted.

In response, the morenista Omar Enrique Castañeda González, indicated that the INE must also “tighten its belt”, especially considering that next year it will not have consultations to make.

Other recurring complaints from the opposition were the resources that will be allocated to the government’s flagship works and programs, which leaves aside other spending needs that would benefit the population.

For the following year, the government proposes a historical expenditure of 8.29 billion pesos, where the greatest pressures are pensions and debt service. These items will need 33.4% of the resources that are planned to be spent next year, according to the PPEF.

Contributory pensions will need 1 trillion 333,300 million pesos, 8.4% more than what was approved for this year. Meanwhile, for non-contributory pensions – delivered through social programs – resources of 335,500 million pesos are proposed, an increase of 34.3% in annual comparison.

With this, pensions, which are considered a “time bomb” due to the generational change in the country, would need an expense of 1 billion 668,800 million pesos for next year.

Added to the foregoing is the expense that is allocated to the financial cost of the debt, which includes the payment of interest among other items, and that this and the following year is pressured by the increase in the interest rate of various central banks to try to contain high levels of inflation.

The Treasury projected that the following year the financial cost of the debt will be 1 trillion 79,100 million pesos, a considerable increase of 29.9% compared to what was approved for this 2022.