Mexico. The ift plenary approved filing a constitutional controversy against the federation's expenditure budget decree for fiscal year 2019. The following is the text published by the entity:
Since its creation, the Federal Telecommunications Institute has fully complied with its constitutional mandate and, in strict adherence to the legal framework governing the exercise of its functions as the autonomous body responsible for the regulation of telecommunications and broadcasting, as well as an authority in economic competition for both sectors, has exercised the budget allocated according to the criteria of austerity, rationality and discipline in public spending.
The changes observed in recent years in these sectors have directly benefited the population, proof of this is that the prices of communications services as a whole fell more than 25 percent, and only in mobile telephony this reduction is more than 43% in the period from June 2013 to June 2018; access to mobile broadband has tripled and today there is a greater offer of telecommunications, radio and television services, just to mention a few.
For the current fiscal year, the Chamber of Deputies approved an Expenditure Budget that contemplates the budget cut of 280 million pesos with respect to the amount requested by this regulatory body for the fulfillment of its functions, which already included a decrease in real terms of 14.8% with respect to the Authorized Budget 2018.
With the additional reduction approved by the legislators, the decrease in the Institute's budgetary resources is 25% in nominal terms, in relation to the amount approved last year and 37.5% in real terms accumulated since 2014.
In this context and after a responsible analysis, the Plenary of the IFT approved to file a constitutional controversy against the Decree of Budget of Expenditures of the Federation (PEF) 2019, considering that the regulatory function of this autonomous body, provided for in article 28 of the Constitution, is violated.
The IFT is responsible for promoting the efficient development of telecommunications and broadcasting; the promotion, supervision and regulation of the use, exploitation and exploitation of radio spectrum, networks and the provision of services in both sectors; as well as being an authority in matters of economic competition, for which it must have a budget that allows the effective and timely exercise of these constitutional powers.
Additionally, the constitutional controversy filed by the Institute is also against various provisions of the PEF Decree 2019 related to the remuneration of public servants, considering that they do not comply with the provisions of the Constitution.
With this legal remedy, the IFT seeks to guarantee the effective and timely exercise of its powers, its budgetary autonomy in the terms established in article 28 of the Constitution and to have the minimum resources that allow its operation, using the mechanisms provided for by our Constitution and with full respect for the powers of the other Organs and Powers of the Union.
