State General Budget
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The General State Budget (PGE) (''
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
: Presupuestos Generales del Estado'') comprises the spending and revenues of the Spanish central government. The PGE is considered the most important act that a government enacts in a year and determine its policy in most areas, as well as being the basis on which the State's economy will move in that year.


Basic aspects of the State Budget

The basic aspects of the PGE are defined by article 134 of the
Spanish Constitution of 1978 The Spanish Constitution (Spanish, Asturleonese, and gl, Constitución Española; eu, Espainiako Konstituzioa; ca, Constitució Espanyola; oc, Constitucion espanhòla) is the democratic law that is supreme in the Kingdom of Spain. It was ...
. The General State Budget are annual, include all the expenses and income of the state public sector and they are the amount of tax benefits that affect state taxes. Spain was a pioneer in terms of transparency in 1978 because of the introduction of this obligation with respect to tax benefits. Since these are equivalent to an indirect subsidy, they can be considered an expense and therefore must be included in the budget.


Preparation and approval

The preparation of the General State Budget is the responsibility of the
Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...
, while its examination, amendment and approval is the responsibility of the
Cortes Generales The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies meet ...
. The Government must present before the
Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members elect ...
the General State Budget at least three months before the expiration of those of the previous year. The objective is for the budget to be approved before December 31 of each year. If the Budgetary Act is not approved before the first day of the corresponding fiscal year, the Budget of the previous fiscal year are automatically carried over until the approval of the new ones. This extension has some exception: it does not affect credits approved for activities that ended in the year whose budget is extended. In practice, when a government does not get the parliamentary support to approve the budget, the most usual thing is the holding of early elections since it is very difficult to govern and make economic policy decisions with an extended budget.


Spending limit

The spending limit established in the budget is not absolute. Once the General State Budget has been approved, the Government may present bills that imply an increase in
public spending Government spending or expenditure includes all government consumption, investment, and transfer payments. In national income accounting, the acquisition by governments of goods and services for current use, to directly satisfy the individual o ...
or a decrease in revenues corresponding to the same budget year. These bills must be approved by parliament. The parliament can also present a proposal or amendment that supposes an increase of the credits (expense) or a decrease of the budgetary income, but this proposal requires the agreement of the Government for its processing.


Creation and modification of taxes

The Budget Act can not create
taxes A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...
. You can modify them when a substantive tax law so foresees.


Budget stability

Article 135 of the
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...
, introduced in 2011, establishes the principles of stability and budget sustainability. Among them it is established that the credits to pay the public debt are always present in the budget and are of absolute priority. This means that even if the budget does not include a forecast of expenditure in debt payment, if there are debts, the credit for that expense is automatically understood as being included in the budget in a virtual way by this article of the constitution. The principles established in this article are developed in the Organic Law of Budget Stability and Financial Sustainability. The objective of budget stability is presented by the
Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...
and is established every three years according to forecasts of economic growth. Each year a multi-year budget plan for three years must be drawn up in which the stability objective is taken into account.


Budgets of the autonomous communities

The Spanish Constitution says nothing about how the budgets of the
autonomous communities eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...
should be. The approval of autonomous budgets is not subject to any type of supervision by the
General State Administration The General State Administration ( es, Administración General del Estado) is one of the Public Administrations of Spain. It is the only administration with powers throughout the national territory and it is controlled by the central government. ...
.


Budgets of local administrations

Article 142 of the Constitution establishes that
municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
have financial autonomy. However, local administrations can not approve budgets. They only have the so-called tax ordinances, which do not have the status of law. Local taxes are regulated in the Regulating Act of the Local Treasuries, which establishes a minimum basis and gives the municipalities enough freedom to develop these bases. The basic structure of local budgets, unlike that of regional governments, is established by the Government. Local entities can not present a budget deficit according to article 135 of the constitution.


Management and sanction

The draft budget is prepared annually by the Ministry of the Treasury and Public Function, through the Secretariat of State for Budgets and Expenses and its principal bodies. The project is approved by the
Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
. The Government presents them to the
Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members elect ...
at least three months before the expiration of the year. The Congress of Deputies votes in the first place for its generic admission or the amendments to the totality, which, if successful, suppose their return to the Government. Once this procedure has been completed, the capacity for alteration due to partial amendments is subject to the non-alteration of the budget balance. Later, the Budget is sent to the Senate, which makes a second reading, but whose ability to alter them is very limited, with a final referral to Congress. Subsequently, they are sanctioned by His Majesty the King and published in the
Official State Gazette An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their su ...
(BOE) with the rank of an ordinary law. In the event that they are not approved, the extension of the previous year's budget is foreseen. Within the General Budget include those of
Social Security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
, cultural heritage and other autonomous agencies. The budgets of the
Autonomous Communities eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...
and the
municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
are organized independently, but they have to be subject to a common regulatory framework, for example in the setting of the public deficit. The legislation of the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
, its budgets and the exchange of various payments and collections with the different Spanish public administrations, also imply different limitations of the national budget capacity and autonomy of Spain.Law 47/2003, of November 26, General Budgetary.
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See also

* Ministry of the Treasury and Public Function * Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness * 2016 Spanish General State Budget


References

{{Reflist


External links


Organic Law 1/2016, of Budget Stability and Financial Sustainability (Spanish)

General State Budget - Ministry of the Treasury
Politics of Spain Government budgets