* Following a unanimous vote, Mexico’s federal senate has approved a package of austerity measures that will reduce its running costs by 30%. According to Alejandro González Yáñez, a senator from the Partido del Trabajo (PT), an estimated M$599m (US$30.57m) will be saved in September-December this year while for the year 2019 the figure will reach around M$1.4bn (US$71.44m). The measures will remove several privileges currently enjoyed by senators and staff, such as vouchers for fuel, mobile phones, and medical bills, as well as reducing attendance bonuses, allowances for food and drink, and the number of staff hired on a fee basis by each senator. Savings will also be made by cutting the amount of resources given to parliamentary groups and reducing the number of senate commissions from 64 to 42. While the decision only affects the senate budget, unanimous support for the measures is good news for Mexico’s President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is set to ask other state organs to reduce their costs as part of a wider austerity and anti-corruption drive, which López Obrador says will fund campaign promises such as free education and other social programmes.
End of preview - This article contains approximately 198 words.
Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article
Not a Subscriber?
Choose from one of the following options