President Carlos Alvarado supported the position of the Minister of Finance, Rocío Aguilar, who suggested that institutions that don’t want to apply the fiscal rule can do so as long as they look for ways to finance themselves.
The President said that this possibility could be used by public universities and the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) through research.
“Just like other universities in the world for example, they can, through research, services and other things that are very good for society, obtain their own funds. That is what I am talking about, that is something that Costa Rica has to explore,”
said the President.
The same case applies to the Fund, according to Alvarado.
Aguilar stressed that the entities that are obliged to comply with the fiscal rule must do so, unless the constitutional route says otherwise.
The minister said that with the application of the tax rule, the Treasury is not violating the autonomy of universities or local governments, but with respect to the academy, its financing comes from government transfers.
If the government continues with the application of the rule and has a limit for its growth, is it a limit for transfers and how do we finance universities? With transfers. In an eventual exclusion of the fiscal rule for universities, if that scenario were to occur, then what I would invite them to do is to find their own resources, because it cannot be with the budget of the republic that has a limit,”
said the Minister.