The Ministry of Culture has a spending limit of 824 million euros, with 597.3 million of consolidated spending, according to the State Budget proposal for 2025 (OE2025) and the budgetary evolution that accompanies it.
The budget evolution maps consider all the income and expenses planned by the different organizations, from operating expenses to investments in activities and projects, as well as all sources of financing, including tax income, own income, European funds and transfers between departments and services, detailing the total. authorized expenses and assumed commitments.
The expenses of the Ministry of Culture and its dependent bodies, specified in the 2025 budget evolution, reach a maximum limit of 824 million euros (ME), in unconsolidated values, while the execution planned for next year coincides with the total consolidated expenditure of 597.3 million euros, included in the OE2025 proposal.
The Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Fund (FSPC), the General Directorate of the Arts (DGArtes), the Cultural Strategy, Planning and Evaluation Office (GEPAC), the Cultural Heritage Institute and the public business entity Museus e Monumentos de Portugal ( MMP), all with values greater than 60 ME, mobilize close to 430 ME, more than half of the total spending limit.
The majority goes to the FSPC, with around 154.4 ME, of which 151.8 ME come from European funds, the majority of which are destined for community participation in co-financed projects and local administration. The General Directorate of the Arts (DGArtes) reserves a sum of 80.4 ME, mainly to support artistic production, for which 73.95 ME is reserved, with an increase of seven million in sustained semiannual support, according to the Explanatory Note of the Culture budget program published this Wednesday.
The Office of Strategy, Planning and Cultural Evaluation (GEPAC), which assumes the transfers of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) and co-finances, among others, the Tourism and Cinema Support Fund (two million), has a possibility of expense of 68.3 ME.
The two organizations resulting from the restructuring of the former General Directorate of Cultural Heritage together exceed 124ME: the Institute of Cultural Heritage with 63.4ME and the MMP with 61.2ME.
The Artistic Production Organization (Opart), which manages the National Theater of São Carlos, the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, the National Ballet Company and the Victor Cordon Studios, totals an expense of 53.8 ME, while the National Theater D. Maria II has 16.3 ME and the National Theater of S. João, about 10.4 ME.
The costs of the Cultural Promotion Fund are covered by 41 ME, including, among other expenses, transfers to the Casa da Música (10 ME) and Serralves (6.4 ME) foundations. The Belém Cultural Center Foundation, for its part, has 22.8 ME and the Côa Parque Foundation, 2.5 ME.
As for the General Directorate of Books, Archives and Libraries (DGLAB), a total expenditure of 27.6 ME is expected, while the National Library of Portugal may have around 11.4 ME. The activity of the General Inspection of Cultural Activities requires an expenditure of 5.1 ME.
The financing of the Fund for the Acquisition of Cultural Assets amounts to two million euros, a sum similar to that reserved for the Mission Structure for the Celebrations of the V Centenary of Luís Vaz de Camões (2.2 ME). The commission for the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of April 25, in its last year of activity, receives the last tranche of 1.5 ME in 2025. The National Arts Plan has an estimated expenditure of almost one million euros, coming from of Culture.
For the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual (ICA), a total expense of 53.4 ME is estimated. This provision includes 20 ME allocated to the ‘cash refund’ incentive to support large film and audiovisual productions.
The ‘cash return’ is a new financing mechanism for the sector, for “productions of greater budgetary value”, and had already been included in the General State Budgets of 2024, with the same allocation. As the ‘cash refund’ application process did not open until September 16 and ends on December 31, the 2024 budget should not run until 2025.
In the case of Cinemateca Portuguesa, the planned expenditure for 2025 is nine million euros.
The Culture accounts also constitute a budgetary reserve of 4.3 ME.
The 597.3 ME of total consolidated expenditure of the organizations supervised by the Ministry of Culture, included in the OE2025 proposal, represent an increase of 6.6% in relation to the consolidated income of 2024 (560.4 ME, with an forecast of 518.7 ME), and are 25.6% above the budget execution estimated for the end of this year (475.7 ME). The Ministry of Culture, however, has 36.7 ME subject to recruitment in 2025.
The allocation of 597.3 ME of the Budgetary Program for Culture is financed with 196.5 ME of tax revenues, 211.2 ME of European funds and 106.3 ME of own income, to which are added an additional 83.3 ME from of transfers between entities.
Tax revenues are mainly allocated to the DGArtes programs, to the payment of compensation for the provision of public services, to the financing of the Cultural Heritage Institute and to the income assigned from the IRC to the ICA (20 ME).
European funds, in 2025, are dominated by the 207.2 ME coming from the PRR, destined for the areas of Cultural Heritage and Cultural Networks and Digital Transition of the Culture measure, as well as by the Vapor Impulso Jóvenes of the Red Ciência Viva de Qualifications and Skills.
The execution of these funds implies the rehabilitation and preservation of the State’s cultural heritage and the reclassification of national theaters.
The funds budgeted by the PRR also cover the construction of the National Sound Library, projects for the requalification and conservation of museums, monuments and public palaces, as well as the digital transition of cultural networks, within the scope of capital transfers from the FSPC and GEPAC. to the municipalities and for the Lisbon Tourism Association.
As for its own income, the majority comes from taxes, fines and other sanctions, fees and investment obligations to which television and audiovisual service operators are subject under the Cinema Law (21 ME in 2025), in sales of goods and services and box office. income from monuments, palaces and museums.
Another source of this income is the distribution of profits from the social games of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Lisbon, which goes to the Cultural Promotion Fund (about 26 ME in 2025).
Financial support for artistic production mobilizes 27.6% of total spending, covering “the programming of the network of theaters and cinemas, regional orchestras, cinema, audiovisual and multimedia, cultural foundations and private entities in the field of culture” , as the OE2025 report highlights.
The Culture budget program will be discussed this Wednesday in the specialty, in the joint hearing of the Minister of Culture, Dalila Rodrigues, in the parliamentary committees of Culture, Communication, Youth and Sports, and Budget, Finance and Public Administration.
Source: Observadora
