ALLOWS ADVANCES FROM THE MUNICIPAL COMMON FUND IN CASE IT INDICATES AND AUTHORIZES THE CANCELLATION OF DEBTS THAT IT NOTES Having present that the National Congress has given its approval to the following Bill: " Article 1.-Facultate to the Service For the first time in 2002, it made advances from the participation of municipalities in the Municipal Fund and prior to its distribution, for a total amount of up to 5 billion pesos. weights, with respect to those municipalities that administer, directly or through corporations, the services transferred under the decree with force of law No. 1-3.063, 1979, of the Ministry of the Interior, they register debts themselves or their corporations, by way of previsional contributions written to 30 of (a) September 2001, for workers in the said services, in order to facilitate the settlement of such debts, their interest, fines and surcharges, in accordance with the rules set out in the following Articles. Article 2.-For the purposes of the above article, within a period of one hundred and twenty days from the date of validity of this law, the municipality concerned shall conclude an agreement with the Sub-Secretariat for Development. Regional and Administrative Department of the Interior Ministry, which will be endorsed by the Ministry of Finance's Budget Directorate. Within the first 60 days of the deadline, the municipality must submit to the aforementioned Secretariat the background that it requires for the subscription of the respective agreement. The agreement shall agree on the amounts to be anticipated and the quotas on which the advances will be reintegrated into the Muni-cipal Fund. The respective municipality, either directly or through the corresponding corporation, will be obliged to apply the amounts anticipated, immediately and in total, to the payment of the contributions and contributions owed to the Institute of Pension Fund Management, the Pension Fund Administrators, the National Health Fund, the Social Security Institutions, or the Employers ' Mutuals, as the case may be. Failure to comply with this obligation shall be sanctioned according to the scale of penalties laid down in Article 233 of the Penal Code, and shall also cause the mayor to be in cause of significant abandonment of his duties in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 18,695, Constitutional Organic of Municipalities. The agreement referred to above will be submitted for approval of the council and in general to the legal regulations governing the municipalities, except in those special rules that this legal body contemplates, and will contain as many clauses as necessary. for the purpose of this law, it may be established in the same convention or in a different manner the stipulations concerning the relations between the municipality and the corporation to which the application of this law may give rise. In any event, these agreements may not be agreed for a period exceeding three years, counted from the validity of this law. The Treasury Department and the Secretariat for Regional and Administrative Development of the Ministry of the Interior will execute as many operations as necessary to carry out the transfer and the reimbursement of these resources. Article 3. In order to subscribe to the respective agreement, the municipality must prove that, at the date of its conclusion, the municipality itself or the corresponding corporation is up to date on the payment of the pre-viewing contributions, to be counted by the for the month of October 2001. Article 4.-In order to determine the amount of resources that the Municipal Common Fund will anticipate from the applicant municipalities, the Sub-Secretariat for Regional and Administrative Development will consider, in particular, the percentage of the debt that the the municipality is willing to assume in accordance with its financial availabilities; the existence of payment agreements in force or to be concluded, in respect of part of the debt; the actions taken to generate resources to the the solution of the respective pension debt, such as the sale of municipal assets or the reallocation of funds; and, finally, the order for the submission of subscription requests for agreements. Article 5.-The resources received by the municipality for the implementation of this law shall be reinstated to the Municipal Fund, to be counted from the sixth month of having received them, without interest or surcharges, in equal and successive quotas, which shall be discounted for the Services of the Treasury of the remittances corresponding to the months of May, July, October and December of each year of the mentioned Fund, and if they do not force enough, of the amounts that it corresponds to the municipality for collection of the territorial tax. The agreed quotas shall be adjusted in accordance with the variation which, between the date of the delivery of the resources and the date of the refund of the respective quota, is experienced by the Consumer Price Index determined by the National Statistics Institute, as set out in the same convention. Article 6.-The mayors of those municipalities who do not pay in a timely manner the previsional contributions corresponding to their officials or to workers of the services transferred under the provisions of the decree with force of Law No 1-3.063, 1979, of the Ministry of the Interior, or do not give due respect to the agreements for the payment of such contributions, or do not enter the corresponding contributions to the Municipal Fund, will incur a cause of notable abandonment of their duties in accordance with the law No. 18,695, Constitutional Organic of Municipalities. Produced any of the situations referred to in the foregoing paragraph, the Treasury Department shall be entitled to discount the insolute balance of the advances granted under this law to the respective municipality of the following (a) remittances from the Municipal Fund and, if they are not sufficient, of the amounts to be collected by the local authorities for the collection of the territorial tax. Article 7.-Intercalase, in point (d) of Article 29 of Law No 18,695, Constitutional Organic of Municipalities, following the word "budget", the following sentence preceded by a semicolon (;): " likewise, shall inform, also on a quarterly basis, on the state of compliance with payments for the provision of pre-viewing contributions from municipal officials and workers who are employed in services incorporated in municipal management, managed directly by the municipality or through municipal corporations, and from the contributions that the municipality must make to the Municipal Fund ". Article 8.-Facultate, for once, to the municipalities that administer municipal services of potable water and sewerage in order to forgive, in whole or in part, prior agreement of the council, the debts contracted by the users of the said services and which are in arrears at 31 October 2001, including fines, interest and readjustments due to the same date. In the exercise of the power indicated, the municipalities may also repactar with each debtor, the conditions of payment of that part of the debt not covered by the waiver. The powers referred to in this Article may be exercised only within a period of 180 days from the date of publication of this law. ' Having complied with the provisions of Article 82 of the Constitution of the Republic of the Republic of the Republic of the Republic of the Republic of the Republic of the Republic of the Republic of the Republic of the Republic of the Republic of the Republic of Mexico, and because I have had to approve and sanction it, I therefore promulgate and take effect as the Law of Santiago, 23 November 2001.-José Miguel Insulza Salinas, Vice President of the Republic.-Francisco Vidal Salinas, Minister of the Interior (S).-Nicolas Eyzaguirre Guzmán, Minister of Finance. What I transcribe to you for your knowledge.-Salute atte. Mr Jorge Correa Sutil, Deputy Secretary of the Interior. CONSTITUTIONAL COURT Draft law that allows advances of the Municipal Common Fund in cases that indicates and authorizes the cancellation of debts that the Secretary of the Constitutional Court, who subscribes, certifies that the Honorable Chamber of Deputies sent the bill enunciated in the rubric, approved by the National Congress, in order for this Court to exercise the control of constitutionality in respect of articles 2, 6, 7 and 8, and by judgment of 20 November 2001, declared them constitutional. Santiago, November 21, 2001.-Rafael Larraín Cruz, Secretary.