Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela's congress today passed plans to boost spending 32 percent in 2007, unanimously backing the government's first budget since supporters of President Hugo Chavez took full control of the chamber last year.

The Caracas-based National Assembly voted unanimously to approve the plan, in which central government spending will top 115 trillion bolivars ($54 billion) in 2007, up from 87 trillion bolivars budgeted for this year. Under the plan, which now goes to Chavez for his signature, revenue is due to match those outlays, boosted by a surge in oil income and tax collections.

``This budget guarantees a priority of our revolution: spending on the process of social justice,'' Rodrigo Cabezas, head of the assembly's finance committee, told reporters in the assembly' hall after the vote.

The plan would allow Chavez, who stands for re-election Dec. 3, to increase outlays that fund his ``Bolivarian'' health, education and housing programs to 45 percent of the total budget, up from about 36 percent this year. Social spending has risen ten-fold since he took office in 1999, helping him cut the poverty rate to 38 percent last year from almost 50 percent at the time.

New outlays include 7 trillion bolivars in social security payments for a record 1 million retirees, and, for the first time, 3 trillion bolivars to community-based citizens' counsels, set up to locally administer work projects approved by congress, Cabezas said.

Chavez faces former Zulia-state Governor Manuel Rosales in the election. Rosales, who trails by 6-to-22 percentage points in recent polls, has said that he would cut government spending abroad while merge most of Chavez' 20 so-called social ``missions'' programs into a single one and maintain some of the rest if elected.

To contact the reporter on this story: Theresa Bradley in Caracas at tbradley7@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 23, 2006 13:10 EST