View of the Federal Capitol Building, headquarters of the National Assembly of Venezuela. Photo: Venezuelan National Assembly/File photo.
This Tuesday, in a special session, the National Assembly of Venezuela approved bills on the Economic Financial Year 2025 and a bill on the Special Law on Annual Indebtedness for the Economic Financial Year 2025.
The first of the projects was presented by United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) deputy and president of the Permanent Finance Commission of the National Assembly, Jesús Farías. “This is the budget for the victory of the Venezuelan people against imperialism and fascism,” said Farías as he presented the bill. “Without this victory, Venezuela would be in chaos.”
He also said that the law concentrates all its efforts on development and prosperity and on independence and increasing participation of the people, both in the design of the budget and in its execution. In 2024, Nicolás Maduro’s administration launched an unprecedented program of elections permitting communities themselves to select the projects to be financed in their own municipalities.
Farías reiterated that the aforementioned bill draft is a very important tool, from which Venezuela’s economic policies are planned according to socialist philosophy, from which “development is driven.”
He added that the deepest roots of this budget are the Plan de la Patria, the development of productive forces, social justice, sovereignty, and independence, in a scenario marred by the aggression of the extreme right and, through various means, such as the economic blockade, by imperialism.
He said that due to the US blockade, the country has been deprived of more than US $200 billion in the last seven years; however, Venezuela will be one of the countries with the greatest economic growth by the end of 2024.
The PSUV deputy noted that today, Venezuela has overcome the blockade and that macroeconomic measurements have been stabilized due, among other things, to political stability and the vigorous democracy in the country. Farías reiterated that the large social investment outlined in the new budget could only occur under a socialist government, where efficiency and the fight against bureaucracy and corruption will be guaranteed through people’s power.
Finally, he emphasized that the country will never again have a budget formulated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
From the Special Law on Indebtedness project
Later, in the speaking order, it was the turn of deputy and member of the Permanent Commission on Economy, Finance, and National Development, Ramón Lobo, to make a presentation on the draft Special Law on Annual Indebtedness for the Economic Financial Year 2025.
During his speech at the plenary session, Lobo explained that the aforementioned project considers up to 20 billion bolívars (approximately US $422 million) “for fiscal management” and “an estimated 60 billion bolívars (approximately US $1.2 billion) for debt service.”
He remarked that these resources will be allocated “to the various actions, programs, and plans that the Maduro administration has in place to strengthen productive capacities and the provision of services” for the people.
World Street Journal Report: Trump Under Pressure to Reconsider Stance on Venezuela
The majority of these resources will be allocated to addressing social issues, said Lobo: “32% of these resources go to electricity, 21% to transportation, and 11% to the Ministry of Water.”
He explained that in the area of water, “projects are being proposed for the improvement of the public drinking-water system and for environmental sanitation.”
Deputy Lobo also mentioned that funds directed towards improving the nation’s electricity services will go in part to Termozulia, which is in its second and third phases, and to Tocoma (Manuel Piar Hydroelectric Power Plant).
The completion of these projects will have a positive impact on the quality of life of the Venezuelan people and on the progress of the country’s economy despite the attacks of the extreme right, carried out under the direction of US imperialism.
The upcoming year “will be a year of prosperity for all the Venezuelan people,” said Lobo in closing.
(Últimas Noticias) by Jose David Delgado, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
