Ruling and Opposition Parties Agree to Secure 1 Trillion Won for Disaster Relief Fund through Expenditure Adjustment... Review Starts Tomorrow (Update)

Lee In-young, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the 24th and delivering opening remarks. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] On the 26th, the ruling and opposition parties agreed to secure about 1 trillion won from expenditure adjustments instead of issuing government bonds for the additional budget allocated for the nationwide emergency disaster relief fund payment.

Lee In-young, floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, said at a press briefing held at the National Assembly on the same day, "If expenditure adjustments are made for the 1 trillion won that was to be burdened by local governments, we can operate the standing committees normally and also activate the Budget and Accounts Committee. I discussed this with Shim Jae-cheol, acting party leader of the United Future Party, yesterday and today."

Initially, the government set the budget at 9.7 trillion won, including 2.1 trillion won from local governments, based on payments to the bottom 70% income earners, and submitted a second supplementary budget (supplementary budget) of about 7.6 trillion won to the National Assembly. However, as the ruling and opposition parties expanded the payment target to the entire population, the required budget increased to 14.3 trillion won. The ruling and opposition parties had shown differences over whether to have local governments bear additional costs or to issue government bonds.

Floor leader Lee said, "Shim, the floor leader, requested that even if it is about 1 trillion won that local governments were supposed to share but the central government ended up sharing, if it can be added through expenditure adjustments, the burden of government bonds would be reduced. So I called the person in charge at the Ministry of Economy and Finance today to discuss whether it was possible, and it was finally agreed that it is possible."

Photo by Yonhap News

On the same day, Shim Jae-cheol, acting leader of the United Future Party, held a press briefing at the National Assembly and said, "We believe that resources should be secured through restructuring the existing budget, not through deficit issuance (government bonds). We hope that the ruling and opposition parties absorb even 1 trillion won of the additional budget through budget readjustment."

He added, "If expenditure adjustments of about 1 trillion won are made, our party will activate the standing committees from tomorrow to review the supplementary budget. The Budget and Accounts Committee will naturally be activated after the standing committees review the budget."

Accordingly, the review of the supplementary budget is expected to begin as early as the 27th. However, regarding the exact timing of the supplementary budget approval, floor leader Lee expressed concern, saying, "After the 29th, the holidays effectively start from the 30th, making it difficult to proceed with work until the 5th of next month. If we meet again on the 6th, the Democratic Party floor leader election is on the 7th, and the United Future Party's floor leader election is said to be on the 8th. Going through these processes means that the review will realistically take place around mid-May."

Meanwhile, regarding the inducement of donations from high-income earners for the relief fund, the ruling party plans to submit a special law related to donations to the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee as a member's bill on the 27th. Yoon Hoo-duk, senior deputy floor leader of the Democratic Party, said, "The draft was reviewed last Friday (the 24th), and it will be submitted as a member's bill on Monday (the 27th). The amendment to the Restriction of Special Taxation Act for a 15% tax reduction will also be proposed on Monday."

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