(ADN).- During May the Government continued to cut funds to the governors under the motto of “maintaining the fiscal surplus.” In that month, the 23 provinces and the City of Buenos Aires received 83% less money than what they received in the same month last year. The data comes from the consulting firm Politikon Chaco, which indicates that in the so-called non-automatic transfers, expenses of $59,700 million were incurred, but $71,331 million were paid.
Apparently, the debate taking place in the Senate regarding the Bases law and the Fiscal Package had no impact whatsoever on the decision to maintain the cuts. The data would indicate that the Javier Milei government would not have “opened its wallet” to obtain the ruling in favor.
It is worth remembering that in the opposite direction, last month the Income Tax recorded a real growth in collection of 80% compared to last year, which meant that the provinces received extra funds of 1.7 billion through federal co-participation.
The report indicates that in the accrued stage, that is, at the time the payment obligation is generated, non-automatic transfers fell 87.6%, while in the paid stage they fell 83.3% compared to May 2023 .
«In May the same phenomenon was seen again as in the month of April: the transfers paid were higher than those earned. The paid/accrued ratio was 119.5% and generates a reduction in the debt of the national State with the group of subnational jurisdictions by $11,631 million, although it still accumulates $120,524 million owed for accrued and unpaid commitments,” warns Politikon Chaco.
The report from the consulting firm directed by economist Alejando Pegoraro specifies that “69.5% of the non-automatic transfers paid corresponded to activities of the Ministry of Health.” According to the work, the money sent by the Nation to the provinces is concentrated in expenses for assistance to Hospitals, as was already observed in February, March and April.
“10.1%, for their part, corresponded to shipments from the Ministry of Education and 6.9% were from the Ministry of the Interior,” says the report.
The work maintains that “among the subnational districts the situation continues to show strong contractions.” “In both its accrued and paid stages, all jurisdictions presented declines of different magnitudes.”
It also details that “the particularity is that readjustments are observed in various concepts, which generated that in the accrued instance there are six provinces with a negative sign in the total shipments.” These are Catamarca, La Pampa, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Fe and Tierra del Fuego.
On the other hand, according to the report, in the accumulated period of January-May 2024, accrued transfers fell 79.3% compared to the same period in 2023 in real terms; and those paid at 86% real year-on-year.
Grouping the transfers in the accrual stage according to jurisdiction of origin, those corresponding to the Ministry of Education exhibit the highest level of participation in May with 69.5% of the total; This is followed by those of the Ministry of Health (23.4%) and the Ministry of the Interior (5.7%). The rest of the shipments account for 5.5% of the total.
To the observer, the paid transfers were led by those corresponding to the Ministry of Education, which concentrated 47.8% of the shipments; They are followed by those of the Ministry of Health (42.5%) and those of the Ministry of the Interior (3.9%). The rest of the jurisdictions concentrated 8.7%.
