Two days before the regulatory deadline and after two intense months of work, the processing of the 2025 Budget Law was finalized in the National Congress, being ready to be enacted. The last part of this initiative, contained in the report of the Joint Commission, was approved by the Chamber of Deputies during the first half of this Wednesday by 106 votes in favor, 16 against, and 4 abstentions; and during the afternoon, the Senate did the same by 37 votes in favor and 1 against.

With this, the Congress complies with the legal deadline for dispatching the Budget Law, which this year corresponded to Friday 29 of the current month. This is the third Budget Law presented by the Government of President Gabriel Boric Font.

The 2025 Budget will total $82 billion, equivalent to a 2% growth with respect to the Law approved for 2024. As a result of an agreement with the Special Joint Commission during the processing of the project, the original proposal, which amounted to $82.5 billion, with an expansion of 2.7%, was modified,

This Fiscal Treasury is designed to comply with Chile, reaffirming the fiscal responsibility path, committed by this Government, to end 2026 with a structural deficit of 0.5% and a prudent debt level. This initiative maintains the hallmark of this administration of prioritizing Public Security, Social Security, and Economic Security.

At the end of the day, the Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, valued the agreements materialized in four protocols: framework agreement in the Special Joint Commission, Education and Health protocols and a miscellaneous one. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parliamentarians who have contributed constructively to this process, both parliamentarians from the government parties and from the opposition. This has been a budget that started or developed in a very challenging context of elections, scandals and political discussion. However, the truth is that it evolved quite constructively throughout all its stages, which shows that even in very difficult contexts it is possible to move forward with challenging tasks, if there is good will, ability to listen and above all a constructive attitude”.

For her part, the Budget Director, Javiera Martínez Fariña, highlighted the spirit and collaboration of a large part of the Congress in reaching agreements during the 2025 Budget process. “In any case, it is important to start a reflection on the scope that the processing of a Budget Law may have. It has become common practice to include a very wide range of topics: from permanent structural changes to very specific administrative issues that do not require legislation. Many times the problem is not the content of what is proposed, but the legislative vehicle put forward. In this sense, it is positive that a new article 50 has been included in the law, which mandates us to make an analysis of all the budgetary glosses during the next year, which will lead us to rethink how the Budget is being processed”.

Meanwhile, the Undersecretary of Finance, Heidi Berner, pointed out that: “This was a budget that, beyond the discussions inherent to the parliamentary debate, had a great willingness to dialogue and reach agreements. This is reflected in the commitments made with the members of both chambers in the areas of health and education. This allowed us to approve key items and address people's concerns and priorities.”

The Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency (Segpres), Álvaro Elizalde, highlighted that “we value the broad approval of this Budget, which was prepared with the main concerns of Chilean men and women in mind, increasing resources to fight crime, improve health services, build more housing, and guarantee better education, among other priorities”. He added that “we also emphasize that the text proposed by the Government had a broad level of agreement, thanks to the efforts and openness to dialogue shown by the Executive at all times, with the aim of moving forward with this initiative, which will tangibly improve the quality of life of all our compatriots”.

Finally, the Undersecretary General of the Presidency, Macarena Lobos, indicated that “we are very pleased that after almost two months of processing, today the 2025 Budget Law has been dispatched, a project that focuses on responsibly addressing the main needs of the citizens: public safety, economic security and social security. We are grateful for the willingness of parliamentarians to reach important agreements that made this important initiative viable”.

Main agreements

During the final month of processing, the Legislative Branch and the Government reached several agreements that were reflected in the Executive's Commitments documents. In the Special Joint Commission, the Executive presented a Framework Agreement for the discussion of the Public Sector Budget Law for the year 2025, composed of five axes: tax revenues, public expenditure, updating of revenues, expenditure and fiscal balance, financing and transparency.

Regarding health, the Minister of Health, Ximena Aguilera, presented a document of 17 measures grouped into three axes: Primary Health Care, better health management and Secondary Level. In the Senate, the Executive's commitments were complemented in matters such as the National Cancer Law and its respective National Registry; waiting lists; hospital management control; external evaluation of the Universal Primary Health Care Program; among others.

Meanwhile, in Education, the Executive committed itself to several actions outlined during the discussion, through a document made up of 25 actions, among which stand out the improvement of the Administrative Management Incentive Fund - SLEP (Contingency Fund), the convening of a technical roundtable to identify optimization and improvement measures for the School Admission System, a recovery plan for Emblematic High Schools and to speed up the processing of the bill that modifies the law that creates the Public Education System.

Finally, on Wednesday, the Executive proposed 20 amendments that were approved by the Joint Commission, ranging from the replenishment of resources to adjustments in the wording of glosses. Among others, funds were replenished for the execution of a support program for companies affected by the social outbreak in the Technical Cooperation Service (Sercotec) of the Ministry of Economy; for the National Service for the Prevention and Rehabilitation of Drug and Alcohol Consumption (Senda); and for the Public Criminal Defense Office in the Ministry of Justice, among others.

Notwithstanding the agreements, the Minister of Finance , Mario Marcel announced that the Executive will file an injunction before the Constitutional Court regarding the incorporation of several glosses that are not in accordance with the constitutional regulations and the purpose of the Budget Law. “The Budget Law is not an ‘omnibus law’ in which one can incorporate anything.  If it were, it would lead to a level of legal uncertainty with respect to the legislation that we would not like to have. In this sense, there are many matters that correspond to permanent legislation that is not related to the budget. Not everything that is legislated, not everything that the State does has to do with the budget. And the logic of the budget glosses is to regulate the execution of the budget, it is not simply a legislative vehicle for any matter that arises, no matter how praiseworthy or meritorious it may be. For this reason, we are going to appeal to the Constitutional Court. We are convinced that the glosses were approved that are outside the constitutional framework because they violate the exclusive initiative or go beyond the main ideas of the Budget Law”, said the Minister.

What the 2025 Budget translates into

• Next year there will be 1,300 additional carabineros on the streets and nearly 400 new ones will be incorporated to the institution in the second stage of the call for service, which implies that by the end of next year there will be more than 53,000 carabineros in the country. With this budget, almost 4,000 vehicles will have been added to the Carabineros fleet, following the replacement of more than 1,000 vehicles during 2025.
• It will finance the installation of cell phone signal jammers in seven additional prisons, including Colina I and Colina II and the Arica prison complex. This, along with the three units installed in 2024, will cover 50% of the country's prison population.
• Originally, the 2025 Budget increased by 68% the resources, to continue with the strategy that seeks to reduce waiting list times, which translates into performing at least 106,000 surgeries across the public and private health system. Thanks to the agreements reached with Congress, this increase will be 150% with respect to 2024. 
• The presidential commitment made in 2022 to increase the Higher Education Food Grant (BAES) will be fulfilled, which will reach $48,000 per month in 15 regions and $50,000 in the Magallanes region, and each month will benefit an average of more than 680,000 students. In this way, the amount of this monthly contribution will increase by 50% compared to 2021. It is worth remembering that this scholarship has not been readjusted since 2013.    
• Resources for Chile Cuida (National System of Support and Care) will grow by approximately 40% compared to 2024. With this, progress will be made towards the goal of assisting 75 thousand people with severe dependency, the resources for the Local Network of Support and Care will increase by more than 120% and, thus, the presence of the Network will increase from 140 to 214 communes across the country.
• The 2025 Budget will make it possible to advance with the fulfillment of the Emergency Housing Plan, which considers the delivery of 260,000 housing units during the Government's term. Next year, resources for housing investment will increase by more than 14% with respect to what was allocated in 2024.
• In order to promote the exercise of cultural rights and reactivate the cultural industry, in 2025 we will create the Cultural Pass, which will provide a contribution of $50,000 to more than 300,000 18-year-olds and 65-year-olds to be used in movie theaters, theaters, bookstores, among others.  
• We will continue to promote the best economic prospects from public investment. We will initiate or continue the construction of relevant projects such as the Alto Hospicio-Iquique Cable Car, the public desalination plant for the Coquimbo Region, the bridge over the Chacao Channel, the double lane of Route 5 in Chiloe, the Nueva Alameda Axis in the capital, and the paving of the Carretera Austral.