BOGOTA, Oct 21 (Reuters) - The 2027 budget bill approved by the Colombian Congress on Tuesday could be scrapped due to a procedural flaw linked to a discrepancy in the text, lawmakers said.
If next year's 634.9 trillion pesos ($201 billion) of spending distributions were to be rejected, it would force the government of new right-wing President Abelardo De La Espriella to set the budget by decree.
• The House of Representatives approved one article with wording different from the version passed earlier
by the Senate, without conciliation between the two chambers, a flaw that according to some legislators and legal experts invalidates the process
• Senate Secretary General, Diego Alejandro Gonzalez, said in a statement that article 65 was approved without amendments in the Senate but "that article was approved with an amendment incorporated," by Congress
• Senate passed the bill on Monday night with 57 votes in favor and one against, while the lower house approved it early Tuesday with 112 in favor and one against
• The approved budget exceeds the current 2026 budget of 555.8 trillion pesos, projects a fiscal deficit of 9.4% of GDP and reallocates resources across sectors
• Reuters could not immediately get a comment from the Finance Ministry or the government
• Senator Juan Caicedo of the right-wing Centro Democratico party said on X that, due to the error, the government's original bill will take effect, including modifications approved in the first debate
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; Editing by Toby Chopra)
