Nobody knows budget details

[NewsWhore]

Most of the country's business leaders are in the dark about the details of a proposal sent by the Executive Branch and currently in Congress, aimed at financing the Central Bank's estimated budget deficit for this year. The presidents of the National Business Council (CONEP), Lisandro Macarrulla, the Young Entrepreneurs Association (ANJE), Pablo Piantini Hazoury, and the Federation of Industrial Associations (FAI), Ignacio Mendez, were contacted by journalists and asked about the proposal, and they all said that they did not know about the legislative details, and could therefore not make any comments. Nonetheless, El Caribe quotes former CONEP president Celso Marranzini Perez as saying that if the credits that the central government plans to take to finance the budget deficit are used for investments, it would generate enough to pay for these financings, then he was in agreement that they should be taken, but if they are used to cover normal expenses, it would not be convenient. The Executive Branch sent a legislative proposal last Monday, 27 October, that would allow for the central government's budget deficit to be financed through an increase in the financial sources of the Income Budget and the Law of Public Spending for 2008. The submission of the proposal is apparently in response to a decrease in government income this year. Since January, and up to 20 October, according to Ministry of Hacienda data, the government's income totals were RD$12.412 billion less than expenditures. Up until 20 October of this year, in comparison with last year, the government's total expenditure increased by 32.4%, and income increased by only 6.4%. Over the period under analysis, expenditures totaled RD$212.44 billion, while in 2007 they were just RD$160 billion for the same time period. Income went from RD$188 billion to RD$200 billion in 2008.

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