BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Colombia’s 2027 budget, approved by Congress only on Tuesday, could collapse because of a procedural flaw, which would force the government to set spending by decree, lawmakers said, according to Reuters.
The spending bill totals 634.9 trillion pesos (about $200.7 billion), up from 555.8 trillion pesos this year, and projects a fiscal deficit of 9.4% of GDP. The Senate passed it Monday night 57–1, and the House of Representatives passed it early Tuesday 112–1.
The problem is Article 65. The House approved it with different wording than the Senate, and the two chambers never held the reconciliation that is required in that case. Senate Secretary General Diego Alejandro González said in a statement that the Senate approved the article without changes, but “we have received information” that the House approved it with an added proposal, Reuters reported in Spanish.
Business daily Portafolio reported that the budget had sunk over the error. Senator Juan Caicedo of the right-wing Democratic Center party said the government’s original bill, with the changes made in the first debate, would now apply. Other lawmakers argued that only Article 65 would be affected, Infobae reported.
The approved budget set aside 141 trillion pesos for debt payments, 93 trillion for education, 84.6 trillion for health and 74.9 trillion for defense. Reuters said President Abelardo De La Espriella’s government shifted money between sectors, cutting funding for the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the missing-persons search unit created under the 2016 peace deal with the FARC. The Finance Ministry did not immediately comment.
Sources: Reuters (via El Nuevo Herald), Portafolio, Infobae
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