Cuban Parliament Approves State Budget for 2015

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 20 (acn) After much debate, first in its standing committees and in the plenary session today, the National People's Assembly approved the Plan of Economics and Law of the State Budget for 2015.

In its 4th Session of the Eighth Legislature, the top legislative body analyzed the financial amounts that ensure the vitality of the main economic and social programs in the country, and the necessary income, both of which require working with efficiency, austerity, organization and greater control and supervision.

Of the 55 854 million pesos intended for current expenses, the Public Health and Education will receive 29 and 24 percent of the budget, respectively, as an expression of the will of the State to preserve the achievements in these sectors.

Although several deputies proposed analyzing the unbundling of the budget and economic plan for 2015 with the workers, it was considered that by being part of the established methodology it was not necessary to collect such political process in the opinion submitted by the Committee on Economic Affairs, another document approved today.

It is expected to support capital expenditures, primarily tangible investments for the budgeted sector and infrastructure as well as programs related to sanitation and building maintenance.

Deputy Lina Pedraza, Minister of Finance and Prices, when introducing the 2015 Budget Law project said it is expected the revenue to grow by six percent and expenditures by 10 percent, which will result in a fiscal deficit of 5 563 400 000 Cuban pesos, representing 6.2 percent of gross domestic product, at current prices.

There are included the financial resources earmarked for granting subsidies to people to engage in constructive actions in their homes, to gradually face the population aging, the incorporation of graduates and continuity of wage policy, approved by the Public Health Sector and launched in May this year.

Net income of 48 991 million pesos, with a large weight in that coming from the tax system as main source for the state budget are planned; hence the importance of insisting on civic culture to meet this social duty.

Pedraza stressed the need for rigorous monitoring of the retail merchandise circulation plans of enterprises of Commerce and Gastronomy, inventories, bank deposits by sales, all of which means that the control in the base has an increasing relevance and is linked to the resources available to each municipality.