The new Government hopes to begin processing the 2024 budget bill "soon" to have it approved in the first quarter of next year. This was explained by the fourth vice president and Minister of Finance and Public Function, María Jesús Montero, in an interview on TVE's La Hora de la 1, in which she explained that before the accounts enter Congress the Executive will speak with the groups that should give them support even though this was already part of the conversations with these groups.
"It was part of the conversations that the accounts had to be successively approved and specifically those for the year 2024. But before a bill enters the Chamber we have to talk to them to see that the commitments that they made are actually fulfilled. The agreements also stated that they had to be reflected in the Budgets," stated Montero.
Montero recalled that the Official State Gazette (BOE) publishes this Thursday the Order with the rules for the preparation of next year's Budgets, and in which "tasks are set" for the different ministries.
"First it requires that each of the departments study their priorities and be able to incorporate into our database, into our system, all the items they would like to have next year. Then, the Ministry of Finance "You have to do the work, which is the really intense work, of determining which of all those elements are the ones that are going to mark the budget lines. We are right at that moment," he explained.
However, there is an obstacle that the fourth vice president has not revealed how she is going to overcome, which is none other than having to approve in the Senate, where the PP has an absolute majority, the new path of deficit and public debt in a scenario of return of fiscal rules. The one who has spoken out on the issue has been the PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, warning the PP that vetoing the stability objectives is preventing, for example, neither the city councils nor the autonomous communities from approving their budgets, with which he has shown confidence that this process will be overcome.
Precisely regarding the recovery of fiscal rules in 2024 and the need to reduce the public deficit, Montero has trusted in economic growth to absorb the downward path of the deficit and debt so that they stand at 3%. At this point, the head of the Treasury has emphasized "prioritizing the items very well", "eliminating that expenditure that is not efficient" and "taking advantage of the increase in income to compensate for the deficit."
Regarding the reduction of the debt with the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA) agreed with Catalonia, the fourth vice president has reiterated that "the method that has been used for Catalonia will be used for the rest of the autonomous communities" and in this sense she has accused the PP of "lying" about the agreements of the PSOE with its parliamentary partners, in particular ERC and BNG, to remember that these same agreements reflect that what was agreed for Catalonia will be valid for the rest.
At this point the minister has acknowledged that no president of the autonomous community of the PP has called her directly but that the CC.AA. of the PP have been interested in the reduction. "They have been interested, directly or indirectly, in what share we estimate their community may receive," she said. "The presidents of the communities know that it is a good measure," she stressed.
