At the first ordinary session of the 9th Legislature of Parliament, which is held at the Conventions Center, the Minister presented the report on the liquidation of the State Budget corresponding to the past calendar, which was approved by the legislators.
According to Pedraza, due to the combined effect of the over compliance of income and the lack of execution of expenses, in the stage in question the projected debt was reduced by 1,382 million pesos, which will become sources of financing this year.
She said that the complex economic situation of the country marked by weather events, financial and fuel restrictions and the worsening of the blockade imposed by the United States, had an impact on the execution of the State Budget.
She specified that this scenario transformed some of the initial objectives envisaged, redirecting part of the resources to restoring basic social services, ensuring the protection of the population, as well as stimulating food production, without abandoning the progress of certain programs.
She added that the state budget allocated $528 million pesos in addition to the resources allocated by local budgets and companies to compensate for the damage caused last September by Hurricane Irma.
Of the 59.803 billion pesos of current expenditure, 37.350 billion pesos were used to finance the population’s basic social services and the remaining government functions, 51 percent of which were in the education, social assistance and public health sectors.
In 2017, the birth rate was 10.2 live births per 1,000 inhabitants, down 1.9 percent from 2016, while the infant mortality rate was the lowest in history: four children under one year of age per 1,000 live births.
On Social Assistance, which includes grandparents’ homes, homes for the physically handicapped, and homes for the elderly and mothers, she said that 185,000 people with financial restraints were guaranteed protection, concentrated in 115,322 families.
Tax revenues represent 74 percent of the total financial resources collected, a behavior that maintains an upward trend and validates the tax system as the main source of income and a means of redistributing wealth.
The Cuban business sector accounts for 86 per cent of such inflows, while the contributions associated with non-state forms of management account for 11 per cent and 30 per cent of the revenues transferred to municipal budgets.
