The Council of Ministers, headed by President Yamandú Orsi, met this Thursday at the Executive Tower, in the final session before the submission of the Five-Year Budget to Parliament, scheduled for Sunday.
At the close of the meeting, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Gabriel Oddone, gave a press conference in which he outlined the project's main priorities. He explained that 40% of the budget increases will be allocated to programs related to children and adolescents.
The second most important item will be security, with 12% of the budget, followed by investments to promote economic growth, which will be just below that percentage. Next comes health, also with 12%, and attention to social vulnerability, with 10% allocated to assistance measures for homeless people. The remainder will be allocated to a diverse set of budget items.
Oddone emphasized that these definitions are in line with the commitments made by the Broad Front during the election campaign.
The project initially allocates US$140 million in budget increases, with a projection that this will reach US$240 million by 2029. This figure will be supplemented by infrastructure resources estimated at more than US$700 million annually.
Among the planned projects are a dam on the Casupá stream, a new water treatment plant in Aguas Corrientes, hospitals and rehabilitation centers, as well as improvements to routes and freight corridors, including the double track on Route 11 to the interbalnearia .
The minister clarified that the metropolitan area project has not yet been included, although the creation of a Metropolitan Transportation Agency is planned, which could have a budgetary impact over the course of the five-year period.
Oddone defined the budget as having three pillars: accountability, transparency, and efficiency. The text will contain between 700 and 720 articles and seeks to overcome what he described as the most severe fiscal constraint at the start of a government term since 1995.
Within this framework, the plan contemplates a fiscal convergence path that, over five years, would allow the result to improve by 1.5 percentage points and achieve primary balance by the end of the period.
Regarding economic growth, the official target was set at an average of 2.4% per year, which the minister considered an ambitious objective.
Regarding the "Temu tax," Oddone confirmed that a 22% VAT will be applied to purchases made through international express shipping, while the exemption will be expanded. Currently, up to three purchases are allowed for a total value of US$600, but the new scheme will allow up to three purchases totaling US$800.
The minister indicated that this change responds to complaints from local business owners concerned about competition from foreign platforms, and also addresses concerns from users who have asked for an increase in the exemption amount.
This new regime will not affect purchases from the United States , which are regulated by specific agreements. The name "Temu tax" refers to the fact that the measure will primarily impact purchases made on the Chinese platform, which competes with lower prices than the Uruguayan market and has already generated a record number of online orders in 2025.
