The Buenos Aires Chamber of Deputies did not discuss on Wednesday the bill to forgive the debts of municipalities with the Province for the funds granted during the pandemic. This occurred after Governor Axel Kicillof will send a new initiative to the Senate proposing to suspend those payments until December.
The initial proposal, which had a committee report and had been agreed upon between the ruling party and the opposition, provided for the forgiveness of the Special Emergency Health Fund for Municipal Fiscal Containment, created in 2020, and the Special Extraordinary Salary Assignments Fund for Municipalities, launched in 2023. The total debt amounts to 7.9 billion pesos, according to official estimates.
The new project sent by the provincial executive to the Senate proposes to suspend payments until the end of the year and reimburse what was paid in 2024. This modification of the legislative scenario forced postponing the discussion in the Chamber of Deputies.
Legislative sources consulted by the Noticias Argentinas Agency did not rule out the possibility of holding a double session next Monday. In that session, the new official bill and a joint initiative from ruling and opposition senators to update the deadlines for provincial elections, requested by the Electoral Board of the province of Buenos Aires, would be addressed.
The original proposal to forgive debts to municipalities was presented by the head of the UCR + Cambio Federal bloc, Diego Garciarena, and later unified with a file promoted by provincial deputy Juan Pablo de Jesús, of Unión por la Patria (UxP).
The Buenos Aires Chamber of Deputies continued to meet on Wednesday but paused the discussion of the project to forgive debts to municipalities that had a committee report.
