Mayor Park Won-soon: "Government Supplementary Budget Insufficient in COVID-19 Emergency"

"Seoul City Mobilizes All Available Resources to Support 'Disaster Living Expenses'"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon strongly criticized the government's passive supplementary budget, stating that "unprecedented emergency situations require unprecedented emergency measures and unprecedented budget allocation" in relation to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) crisis.

On the 18th, during an online regular briefing, Mayor Park announced the disaster emergency living expenses support, the first of its kind implemented nationwide in Seoul, and said, "This (central government's) supplementary budget is clearly wrong." He pointed out that the supplementary budget related to COVID-19 did not include disaster basic income-type support requested by several local governments.

Mayor Park said, "I do not entirely understand the government and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance excluding (disaster basic income) support due to concerns about the soundness of national finances," but added, "There is a significant problem in this perception."

He continued, "The supplementary budget of 11.7 trillion won passed by the National Assembly did not include disaster emergency living expenses to directly support disaster blind spots," and said, "The current supplementary budget is far too insufficient to overcome the COVID-19 hardship."

He also mentioned that the U.S. Trump administration is pushing for a stimulus package worth 1 trillion dollars and engaging in large-scale quantitative easing.

Mayor Park said, "Our debt-to-GDP ratio is only about 40%, while the U.S. is 100%, and Japan exceeds 400%," and questioned, "Despite their enormously high debt ratios, isn't the scale of their quantitative easing huge?"

He then emphasized, "Seoul City recognizes the current situation as an unprecedented emergency and has decided to mobilize all available resources," adding, "Seoul's disaster emergency living expenses will cover citizens who were previously not eligible for support, providing unprecedented assistance in this unprecedented social disaster situation."

Mayor Park also demanded additional government support, saying, "In such an unprecedented situation, with the people's economic conditions this difficult, what kind of finances can exist without the people? The door for a second supplementary budget is open, so I hope (disaster basic income) will be included."

On the same day, Seoul City announced that it will provide disaster emergency living expenses of 300,000 to 500,000 won to 1,177,000 households with income below 100% of the median income, excluding those receiving government support. The city estimates that this will require a budget of 327.1 billion won.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.