“Pacho” Santos responded to Gustavo Petr’s initiative to remove subsidies from the rich sectors of the country: “Nothing surprises us anymore”

President Gustav Petr’s announcement of an increase in the nation’s general budget (PGN) for the year 2025 by decree caused great controversy in the national territory.

According to the national government, in order to implement the 523 billion pesos planned for the following year, a financing law must be passed, as this would reach the 12 billion pesos that are not funded.

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The PGN or financing law did not have a sufficient quorum at the economic sessions of the Congress of the Republic. This led President Peter to insist that if the initiative does not win the approval of the legislature, it will be necessary to reduce the spending plan for 2025, stressing that he will “cut all subsidies to the richest sectors”.

Given the announcement of the head of state, some expressed their disapproval of the initiative; among them former Vice President of Colombia Francisco ‘Pacho’ Santos.

The former vice president of the government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez described it as a “tragedy” that the country’s president “I don’t know that the rich don’t have subsidies and, on the contrary, they finance them. “Nothing surprises us anymore.”

According to the original draft of the Nation’s Consolidated Budget, policy spending will be incremental compared to the current period. If the funding law is approved by decree, there will be political spending 274.4 billion pesos compared to 272 billion pesos in 2024.

President Gustavo Petro assured through his account X that if the Congress of the Republic does not approve his tax reform, he will have to cut all subsidies to the richest sectors of Colombia.

“If the 2025 budget has to be cut because Congress doesn’t pass a funding bill, then all subsidies to the wealthy will be cut. “The people are not paying for (Iván) Duque’s excessive indebtedness,” President Gustavo Petro said.

The declaration of the head of state was made by the president of the Senate of the Republic, Efraín Cepeda, at the Congress of the National Federation of Business Traders (Fenalco), held on Friday, September 27, 2024.

Cepeda said there were enough votes in Congress to disapprove the nation’s general budget for 2025 because it is underfunded and subject to unclear revenue sources such as tax reform.

The President of the Senate explained it “As long as I am president of the Senate, I will not be a notary public of government initiatives that do not come from consensus.”

And he added: “Our constitution tells us that we are a democracy where there is an alternation of power, where laws are debated in Congress freely, without pressure, where an unfavorable decision of the judicial system is not interpreted as a coup d’état. “.

Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla submitted the tax reform to the Secretariat of the House of Representatives on September 10, with the aim of adjusting the accounting to finance the 2025 budget.

“This is accompanied by a 15% rate on the rent in cases where they expand the facility and, Following the recent trucking agreement, the VAT exemption for the fleet conversion process is being extended to five years. But it involves technological advances, it’s not just replacing diesel with more diesel, but replacing diesel to get into the electric car fleet,” the Treasury portfolio chief hinted.

Finance Minister Ricardo Bonilla defended the recent drop in Ecopetrol’s share price by arguing that the situation was worse under previous governments.

Bonilla clarified that JP Morgan is not a rating agency, so Ecopetrol’s rating was not affected. “Stocks are up today,” the portfolio manager said, downplaying the impact of the investment banking report. In addition, he noted that JP Morgan’s commentary focused on a specific Crownrock project in which the entity had an interest.