In a speech at the annual conference of the Specialized Credit Associations (ASFAC), Joaquim Miranda Sarmento criticized the previous executive (PS) for expenses approved at the beginning of the year, some of which were after the legislative elections of March 10, which resulted in the victory of the AD coalition (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM).

"We are talking about 2.5 billion euros that were not in the document that the Assembly of the Republic approved in the State Budget", he said.

The minister said today that the previous government approved extraordinary expenses in the amount of 1,080 million euros, with 960 million euros being after the legislative elections of March 10.

The minister once again defended that the budgetary situation that the current executive found is "different from the one that had been announced".

Miranda Sarmento said that the measures approved by the previous government at the beginning of the year had "an impact, especially at the level of the provisional reserve", which exists in the Ministry of Finance and is normally used in the second half of the year to meet extraordinary or new expenses.

"It so happens that, in just three months, almost half of the reserve that existed for the entire year has already been used", he criticized.

The Minister of Finance once again accused the previous government of approving 116 Council of Ministers resolutions, 42 of which were not within the budget.

"We are talking about measures that, as a whole, have a cost of 1.2 billion euros. That is, measures that were not foreseen and that will have to be paid through the budget reserve" which he says is "very undercapitalized".

Even so, he assured that this scenario does not mean that there is no capacity to fulfill what the Government promised, but that "greater effort, rigor and budgetary control" will be necessary, and maintains the "ambition of ending the year with a positive budget balance".

"Contrary to what some have said, I am not saying this to exempt the Government from fulfilling its commitments. That is not the issue. This data must be known because it is factual", he said.

Miranda Sarmento guaranteed that, "despite the context of instability and uncertainty, the action of this Government will continue to be guided by reformism, by the commitment to growth and innovation, and by the improvement of salaries".

Last week, the Minister of Finance and his predecessor in the portfolio, Fernando Medina, exchanged accusations due to the budget execution data (data in cash logic) for the first quarter.

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