The Governing Council of the Cabildo approves a draft budget for 2021 of almost 184 million

"Increasing the resources available, both for public investment and for spending on services to citizens, is a challenge in a scenario characterized by the loss of tax revenue," says Corujo

January 15 2021 (19:50 WET)
The President of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo
The President of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo

The Island Government Council has approved the draft budget for the year 2021, which reaches a total amount of 183,796,860.26 euros. This figure consolidates in the Cabildo's accounts the Budgets of the autonomous bodies, consortia and the statements of forecast of income and expenses of the EPEL and the SPEL. As for the unconsolidated budget, the Cabildo's accounts include a figure that amounts to 148,598,566 euros, which represents an increase of 10.31% in relation to the previous year.

The president of the Cabildo, María Dolores Corujo, has stressed that this is an atypical document, "as it is strongly conditioned by the consequences of the pandemic caused by the coronavirus" and stressed "the need to increase spending levels to respond to new needs and public investment, due to its driving effect on the island's economy as a whole".

"Increasing the resources available, both for public investment and for spending on services to citizens, is a challenge in a scenario characterized by the loss of tax revenue as a result of the economic crisis," said Corujo, who explained that this objective has been possible thanks to the suspension of the fiscal rules of compliance with budgetary stability, the debt limit and the spending rule for 2020 and 2021.

"Thanks to these measures, we can incorporate the treasury surplus and arrange a bank loan of thirty million euros, which allows us to approve an expansive budget capable of responding to the role that the Cabildo must play in this new scenario," he said.

 

Years of "repeated delays" in the approval of the accounts 

The president of the Cabildo has announced that in the coming days the processing of the budget will continue until it culminates in the Plenary, which will be held before the end of the month, "after years of repeated delays that meant that the Cabildo did not have its main instrument of economic management until well into the year".

In this regard, Corujo recalled that the current government group arrived at the first island institution and found a budget extended in the middle of June, having to undertake in a few months the drafting of the 2019 budget while preparing the 2020 budget, which was rendered ineffective, just before its approval, as a result of the Covid crisis.

"We are going to initially approve the budget in January and that is going to be the tonic throughout the legislature. Approving the budget on time means being able to execute it. Lanzarote cannot stand another fictitious budget," he concluded.

 

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