La Jornada: They propose cuts to social programs in Chile; Kast denies it

Santiago. A document prepared by the Chilean Ministry of Finance, which suggests to other public ministries and agencies the elimination or drastic reduction of hundreds of social programs, including one that feeds hundreds of thousands of students, caused a stir and forced President José Antonio Kast himself to deny such intentions.

The document, whose proposals should be applied to prepare the 2027 budget of the central government, identifies 142 programs and quantifies 5.4 trillion Chilean pesos (6 billion dollars) in cuts or reallocations, with a projection until 2031.

The Minister of Finance, Jorge Quiroz, the ideologist of a tax reform that if approved will cost about 4 billion dollars in revenue, as a result of lowering by 4 points – from 27 to 23 percent – ​​the tax burden on large companies and their controllers, came out to give explanations that he would not seek to eliminate public policies, but rather to modify them.

“The recommendation to discontinue implies that the program in its current design should not continue operating” and that “it is the program that should not continue operating, not the policy,” because they are defined by law, while the programs correspond to the way in which they are executed. He admitted that “the office uses words that are not perfect in terms of communications, because it is not designed to be communicated to the general public.”

The letter instructs “to adjust your expenses, this time in the period 2027 to 2031, reviewing all spending subtitles to find spaces for efficiency through management”, pointing out that the budget formulation occurs in “a scenario of fiscal tightness that requires a paradigm shift in the management of public resources.”

Kast himself ran to deny that it was in the design to suppress the School Feeding Program, run by the National School Aid and Scholarship Board (Junaeb), which delivers almost 4 million rations every day to 1.6 million students in pre-basic, basic, secondary or adult education who are socially, economically, psychologically or biologically disadvantaged.

In the center-left opposition there is increasing conviction that Kast and his minister Quiroz seek to advance an economic agenda whose ideological foundation is the reinforcement of the neoliberal regime and the dismantling of the State.

Carolina Tohá, former Minister of the Interior, said that “the people who are in the government today dedicated themselves throughout the entire administration of President (Gabriel) Boric to criticizing him for being refoundational. What we are seeing now, this is indeed refoundational: what this reform is going to mean is defunding the State.”

The financial report of the tax reform admits that it will be in deficit for no less than eight years, conditional on the numbers to the acceleration of growth from 2.5 percent annually now to no less than 4 percent, which in any case does not guarantee fiscal balance either.