Axel Kicillof guaranteed an Infrastructure Fund for the municipalities and the 2022 Budget is discussed

The Chamber of Deputies approved the 2022 Budget bill and the Fiscal Law in the early hours of Wednesday. The budget had some modifications that allowed the support of the opposition and unlike what happened in the National Congress, the province of Buenos Aires will have a Budget. Among the changes, a Municipal Infrastructure Fund (FIM) was guaranteed, which will be 18 billion pesos, in addition to the 7 billion pesos that was included for the Security Fund. Now, the process continues in the Senate.

The funds destined for municipalities were a demand of the mayors, both official and opposition, which was closed moments before the treatment. Regarding the Tax Law, the head of the Buenos Aires Revenue Agency (ARBA), Cristian Girard, had said when he presented the project that “it is a law that outlines a tax structure aimed at accelerating economic growth, improving the quality of income. linked to property taxes, by focusing the increase in collection on high net worth and combating tax evasion, while reducing the burden on most of the taxpayers ”, he had remarked.

The opposition generally accompanied but showed their differences to the project. “In this budget they are telling us to our faces that they are going to discriminate against the municipalities of Together for Change, such as San Nicolás, which is the third in the interior. For next year for public works they are going to allocate 0 pesos to us, San Nicolás, like so many other cities contribute hundreds of millions of pesos to the province. Of the last cities that are going to receive for works, 18 are from Juntos. They are mortgaging the development of millions of residents who are as Buenos Aires residents as those who live in La Matanza and Lomas de Zamora, ”complained the opposition provincial deputy, Santiago Passaglia. Despite the criticism, Juntos accompanied the initiative.

In addition, a compensation fund was added for municipalities that were altered as a result of the pandemic, the Unique Distribution Coefficient (CUD), which is the variable that determines the amount of funds that municipalities receive from part of the Province. This variable has been frozen for two years and has a composition that responds on the one hand to the health system of each municipality and on the other to the amount of population, area, and contributory capacity. The pandemic has disrupted some values ​​such as the number of hospital beds in each district. The higher the occupancy of beds, the CUD increases, but with the arrival of the pandemic, these parameters are no longer the same as before and in some municipalities -especially in the interior-

“We are voting on a very important Budget. It has to do with the policy that it carries out with the management policy. It contemplates capital expenditures of 260 billion pesos, it is a record investment in our province and it is linked to the plan presented by our governor of 6×6 ″, said the deputy and head of the Budget committee in the lower house, Juan Pablo de Jesus; one of the informant members for the ruling party.

For her part, Deputy Lucía Iáñez stressed that it is the first budget with a gender perspective. “The province began a sustained path to address gender issues.” 1700 million pesos will be allocated to address gender policies in different areas of the government.

The project counted on the rejection of the two uniblocks of the left and the block of Avanza Libertad. While the rest of the benches (Frente de Todos, Juntos, November 17 and FE) ended up accompanying the Executive’s project.

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