QCOSTARICA — “If it lands at my desk, I’m going to veto it,” said President Rodrigo Chaves about the legislative bill to reduce the 2024 Marchamo or annual circulation permit, by 66%.
Chaves warned legislators, who are currently discussing the bill, this Wednesday during the traditional news conference following the weekly cabinet meeting.
“I hope the (Legislative) Assembly is responsible (…) I’m going to veto it and if they get 38 votes, there are 118,000 reasons to veto it, 118,000 million colones of reasons to veto it,” he said.
The initiative is led by the Partido Liberal Progresista (PLP) and has the support of the Partido Liberación Nacional (PLN), as well as the Frente Amplio (FA), which requires a ‘majority” vote of 38 in favor for it to be passed.
The “union” between these three parties is strange since they are even ideologically extreme parties, according to Chaves, who went as far as calling the legislators “populists”.
What is important to note here, is that it was Chaves, as a presidential candidate in 2021, to strongly criticize then-president Carlos Alvarado’s veto of a similar bill that would affect the 2022 Marchamo.
For his part, the Ministro de Hacienda (Finance Minister), Nogal Acosta, was visibly upset with the plan due to the impact it would have on public finances. He indicated that efforts have been made to obtain a primary surplus and that is not why finances are at their best.
At the end of the press conference, Acosta declared “This government is not going to allow us to have irresponsibility of that size, there are 118,000 million colones that are used to fix the roads and those who provide services to the people”.
For any reduction to be effective for the following year’s Marchamo, a final decision must be made before the first business day of November, the day when the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) makes changes to the systems in order to apply the possible reduction.
