Minister of Finance and discussion of emergency family income: “We cannot burn all the cartridges now”

In an interview in the Central Table, Channel 13 program, the Finance Minister, Ignacio Briones, defended the Government’s proposal to approve the emergency family income in the face of opposition criticism that considers the amount used by the State to be insufficient and specified that it is necessary to have Sufficient resources for what remains in the crisis.

“There is a significant amount here, which is a great effort that we are making and we cannot lose sight of that. Because, in addition, here we cannot burn all the cartridges now. This is a story that continues and has a lot of uncertainty, “said Briones.

The minister affirmed that they are working on the drafting of the veto and reiterated that the proposed amount will remain at $ 65,000 the first month; $ 55,250 the second month; and $ 45,500 in the third month, with a total of US $ 800 million destined by the State for the measure. But they have discussed with the opposition the possibility of eliminating the sections in which the income is paid and that is the same for the most vulnerable 60%.

In addition, Briones defended that the amount is decreasing in the 3 months and noted that “in the most extreme cases when the person is quarantined, there is an impossibility of generating income, so the first month the amount is higher and decreases over time, because the expectation is that this will decrease and there will be the possibility of complementing income ”.

The secretary of state also had words for criticism that calls for increasing the fiscal deficit. “We are in a situation where if a family receives an income of 100 it is as if they were spending 140, that is the reality of the treasury. The difference of 40 corresponds to a fiscal deficit of 8 points of GDP, so of course one could still say there is infinite space What is infinite space That we have an income of 100 and spend 200?

During this week a great controversy was generated by Cencosud’s decision to distribute the dividend, having accepted the employment protection law with some of its subsidiaries, which triggered the company to retract its decision to accept the law.

Regarding this situation, the Minister of Finance expressed that “there was an error on the part of Cencosud and they have recognized this in retracting. I think part of the effect of that mistake is that it has greatly contaminated the discussion. In the law we did not put discrimination on the size of companies because what we are interested in is protecting employment, the workers are in the small, micro, medium and large companies. It is true that large companies represent 1% of the total, but 30%, if not more, of employment. ”

In addition, Briones reiterated his criticism of the indication approved by the mixed commission, which prohibits the distribution of dividends in companies that benefit from the law. “I think the law was broken. It is important that we recognize and discuss this topic, because at the end of the day it can generate an effect that is contrary to the spirit that animated us ”.

Finally, on how they will proceed to solve this problem, the Secretary of State stated that “we are looking at options. First we have to reestablish dialogue and this has only just happened. So I want to get Cencosud out. Cencosud is already. Let us focus on the real problem we have in our country. In the coming months we are going to have a tremendous job problem and everything we do to shore it up is essential. ”